Video: ACTRIMS Forum focuses on spectrum of MS

In this video perspective, Anne Cross, MD, an MS specialist at Washington University in St. Louis and program director of ACRTIMS Forum 2021, discusses the theme of this year’s conference: “The spectrum of multiple sclerosis.”

“MS is highly heterogeneous,” she said. “Everyone is beginning to realize that. There are some people who have a very benign course of MS and some people who are very severely affected. There are some people who start out with MS when they’re children and some people who don’t get it until they’re 55 or 60. There also is, clearly, a heterogeneity in responses to therapies.”

Cross highlighted some of the presentations at the meeting that will attempt answer important questions about the disease. These include talks on the effects of aging on central nervous system repair and remyelination and the role of environmental factors and comorbidities in MS. There will also be an entire session from LACTRIMS — a sister organization in Latin America — that Cross said will offer updates on demographics, epidemiology and responses to MS treatment in Hispanic and Latinx patient populations.