The Clinical Implications of the ARISE Data in RIS: Darin Okuda, MD

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“These are exciting times. Overall, these data also allow us to rethink. Should we start to think about how we diagnose people with MS and really start to introduce the concept and push it stronger. Of course, we would put up additional safeguards to ensure we’re not over-recognizing or over-diagnosing people, but it’s the right thing to do in medicine. We can’t take away a relapse. Currently, we can’t fix disability as well as we would love to. So, it is all a play on primary prevention right now, and this work really supports that mindset.”

In a late-breaking session at the 2022 European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) Congress, October 26-28, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, data from the first study to show a benefit of disease-modifying therapy in patients with radiologically isolated syndrome (RIS) were presented by Darin Okuda, MD, professor of neurology and the director of Neuroinnovation and Multiple Sclerosis & Neuroimmunology Imaging Program at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.¹

The findings from the pivotal ARISE study (NCT027395420) ultimately showed that early treatment with dimethyl fumarate (Tecfidera; Biogen) significantly reduced the risk of first clinical demyelinating event in these individuals at week 96 in both the unadjusted (HR, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.05-0.63; P = .007) and adjusted (HR, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.01-0.45; P = .005) Cox proportional hazards regression model.¹

To find out more about the implications of these data and their importance to the field of multiple sclerosis (MS) care, NeurologyLive^® spoke with Okuda shortly after his presentation. He shared his insight into the study process, what additional data would be helpful to assess further, and his thoughts on the affect this could have on the timing of therapy initiation and the diagnosis of RIS relative to treatment.

Click here for more coverage of ECTRIMS 2022.

REFERENCE
1. Okuda DT, Kantarci O, Lebrun-Frenay C, et al. Multi-center, randomized, double-blind assessment of dimethyl fumarate in extending the time to a first clinical demyelinating event in radiologically isolated syndrome (ARISE). Presented at: ECTRIMS Congress 2022; October 26-28; Amsterdam, Netherlands.