Grant: Pfizer Operating Grant in Disease Prevention and Management

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common disease leading to chronic neurologic disability in the young age, with a prevalence of up to 3 individuals per 1000 Canadians. Up to 10% of patients will develop MS during childhood. MS may start as early as in the pre-school age. Canadian children are amongst the most frequently affected world-wide. Children with MS have a worse long-term outcome as compared to adult-onset MS patients. The majority of untreated childhood-onset MS patients will develop irreversible disability at a young age when they are at the prime of their life, starting careers and becoming parents. Early implementation of treatment strategies to prevent MS attacks and to diminish chronic and potentially destructive inflammation of the brain is now the standard of care in adult onset MS. However, diagnosis and treatment of MS in the pediatric age group is still being delayed in many patients. Possible contributing factors include a restricted knowledge of the side effect spectrum of MS drugs in children and a lack of consensus with regard to a treatment approach. Many of the children treated for MS are not monitored in a standardized way, rendering the identification of age-specific adverse events as well as of a potential treatment failure very difficult. In the near future, the emergence of several new MS therapeutics, which have not yet been studied in patients under the age of 18 years, will make it even more crucial to develop national guidelines for managing and monitoring MS care in childhood. The overall goal of this project is to provide front-line health care practitioners with a tool to deliver optimal care to these very young MS patients. There is increasing evidence that timely and optimized treatment of children with MS will improve their long-term neurological outcome.