Local doctor honoured for stem-cell research
Almost 20 years ago, there were skeptics when Ottawa stem cell transplant physician Dr. Harold Atkins and his colleague Dr. Mark Freedman first proposed using stem cells to “reprogram” the immune system to stop the progress of multiple sclerosis.
In June 2016, a paper on 24 patients published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet concluded that the treatment halted damage to the brain caused by the immune system, stopping relapses for 70 per cent of patients. The disabilities of many patients stabilized. Some even recovered lost abilities.
On Tuesday, Atkins, who is also a scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa, will receive the Till & McCulloch Award for “exceptional contributions to global stem cell research.”
Jennifer Molson was one of the patients who regained lost abilities. She was 21 years old and in RCMP training when she was diagnosed with MS in 1996. By 2001, she had quit working fulltime when Freedman, who was her neurologist, told her about a study. Essentially, Molson learned, her immune system would be knocked out. Then she would be rescued with her own blood stem cells.
Molson started chemotherapy in June 2002, and received the stem cell transplant the following month.
“I knew I was going to be sick, but it was gruelling,” she says. “It took at least a year before I felt human again. It took a year and a half before I noticed any changes.”
Molson started out in a wheelchair, graduated to a walker, then braces and crutches. Soon she could walk up and down stairs and regained her sense of heat and cold. In the past 15 years, she has used no disease-modifying drugs. She enjoys downhill skiing, kayaking and paddleboarding. In 2005, she went back to work part-time and now works in the rapid assessment clinic of the Ottawa Cancer Centre.
“He’s humble and soft-spoken,” she said of Atkins. “He gave me back my life. Looking at how the disease progresses, I don’t even know if I would be here. He gave me a second chance.”
Molson considers herself “cured,” but this isn’t the term Atkins uses.
“It’s not the same as a cure. A cure means it doesn’t come back for the rest of the patient’s life. So far we have had good results. Is it going to work for the rest of the patient’s life? We don’t know,” Atkins said.
The treatment isn’t for everyone with MS, only patients with the early aggressive type of the illness, which is only a small minority of people with MS.
Since the study began, researchers have refined who makes a good candidate. Some damage can repair itself, but if damage is too severe, the brain uses up its repair potential, Atkins said.
At last count, 54 patients with MS and about 20 more patients with two other conditions, myasthenia gravis and stiff person syndrome, have undergone the treatment. There is now a network of physicians in the U.S. and Europe who are tracking about 1,000 patients.
As for winning the Till & McCulloch Award, Atkins said he’s “speechless.” The award is named after Canadian stem cell scientists Dr. James Till and Dr. Ernest McCulloch, pioneers in the field.
“Stem cells were such a big part of my field since the ’60s. When I was training in the ’70s and ’80s, we were always hearing about Till and McCulloch. I had the opportunity to train with Dr. McCulloch,” Atkins says.
“It’s really special that way.”