Yes Av8rgirl, I did see those websites, thank you. By the way there is another pilot recently looking for other pilots on another forum.
I am a former clinical dietitian and I sum things up in simple terms for those who may not have a medical background.
If we are allowed to quote, this is from the first url you cited.
"..... stem cells uniquely have high levels of a particular protective enzyme that can be measured in advance of therapy, which makes them impervious to Revimmune, and allows the surviving stem cells to give rise to the new immune system over 2 to 3 weeks. The newly reconstituted peripheral immune system typically lacks the misdirected immunity to self-antigens, which is characteristic of autoimmune diseases."
I was looking into this treatment since I can take off for 2 months in the summer without disrupting my career, and I am early RRMS.
It seems you have to have active lesions for this to work best. They think, as we seem to know from the Lesion Project, that inactive lesions have different characteristics that will not respond to this treatment.
Stony Brook University did not have as much success, in its earlier study, but one client's successcan be viewed on a news video clip, about Stony Brook's investigation and how it worked, for those of you who are interested.
http://www.myfoxny.com/myfox/pages/H...Y&pageId=1.1.1
My understanding is that Stony Brook was using a different protocol with more advanced situations for their study. It took time for them to figure out who would benefit most from this procedure, when they started applying it to MS. Revimmune is licensed for use with 80 diseases.
Most therapies being tested to reduce MS progression will affect our immune systems one way or another ( B cells, T cells, etc.). I have been looking for something that does not, since I am around sick children as my job.
I have 5 autoimmune disorders, endometriosis, vitiligo, arthritis, hyperthyroidism X 3 + radiation, and now MS. Two are under control. So I was very interested in this procedure.
In my case, 3 of my autoimmune disorders they believe, are linked to one another through genetics.