Disease stability over 5 years in people with multiple sclerosis treated with cladribine tablets: a plain language summary of publication

What is this summary about? This is a summary of an article originally published in the journal Advances in Therapy. Cladribine tablets are approved for treating people with relapsing multiple sclerosis (shortened to MS). People with MS take cladribine tablets for 2 periods of 4 to 5 days per year. This analysis looks at the results from 2 studies called the CLARITY and CLARITY Extension studies. These studies looked at what effect a 2-year course of treatment with cladribine tablets had on disability over 5 years in people with MS. How was the analysis carried out? In this analysis, researchers measured disability worsening at regular intervals during the 2-year treatment period in the CLARITY study and for up to 3 years after treatment completion in the CLARITY Extension study. What were the results? When measurements were taken at Year 5 of the study, disability remained stable in more than half of participants. Over the 5-year period, 70% of participants did not experience persistent disease worsening that lasted more than 6 months. What do the results mean? Researchers concluded that a 2- year course of cladribine tablets may provide long- term benefits on disability for up to 5 years.