On the February MS/Cancer support group conference call, participants learned about the North American Research Committee On Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS) Project, what services it provides and the need for MS patients to participate.  This self-help support group is sponsored by the National MS Society and the American Cancer Society.

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Vanny Soeung spoke on the January MS/Cancer monthly telephone conference about her role as a social worker at the Maxine Mesinger Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She described her work and the clinic services for MS patients.

Soeung's role is to help patients with schedules, their diagnosis, during doctors' visits, addressing their needs and getting consultations from the doctors.[More]
 

Since its first broadcast in 1999, MS Learn Online, the National MS Society's Internet program, has been a successful way to educate about multiple sclerosis. View pre-recorded webcasts to learn more about MS from the convenience of your own home. Programs cover a wide variety of topics such as information for people newly diagnosed, MS basic facts, symptom management, employment, intimacy, care-partners, and progressive MS.

Each program may include:

Laura Ng, an oncology pharmacy resident at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, advised the MS/Cancer Telephone Support Group on how to manage diarrhea while undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Ng is training to work with people with cancer and cancer drugs.  The call is sponsored by the National MS Society and the American Cancer Society.

Ng said, "We define diarrhea as more than one liter of liquid stool in one day. If you produce more than one liter of diarrhea in 24 hours, contact your health-care provider."

Summary: In a small-scale, early-phase trial of the hormone estriol, a form of estrogen, women with relapsing-remitting MS showed decreases in MRI-detected brain lesion activity and immune responses during treatment, suggesting that additional study of estriol is called for to determine longer-term efficacy and safety.

• Women who have MS and are pregnant often experience fewer MS symptoms and relapses, especially during the second and third trimester. Because the hormone estriol is elevated during later stages of pregnancy, and mice given pregnancy levels of estriol were shown to have fewer symptoms of an MS-like disease, the hormone was considered as a candidate for testing against MS.
• Estriol was well tolerated. Six women with relapsing-remitting MS experienced significant decreases in brain lesion numbers and volume, as well as reductions in levels of immune proteins indicative of inflammation.[More]