Trial reportMultiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England)2017
High-dose erythropoietin in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis: A randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial.
Trial report in Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnosis, management, and outcomes of drug-induced erythrocytosis: a systematic review.Blood advances · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Erythropoietin (EPO) for Neuroprotection in Human Studies.Neurochemical research · 2021Pooled it
- Cognitive Efficacy of Pharmacologic Treatments in Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review.CNS drugs · 2020Pooled it
- Repair mechanisms of the central nervous system: From axon sprouting to remyelination.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2025Review
- Hypoxia in multiple sclerosis.Redox biology · 2025Review
- Non-hematopoietic erythropoietin splice variant is produced in the diseased human brain and confers neuroprotection.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2025Article
- Treatment With Erythropoietin for Patients With Optic Neuritis: Long-term Follow-up.Neurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation · 2023Article
- Inflammation in multiple sclerosis: consequences for remyelination and disease progression.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2023Review
- Mechanisms of Demyelination and Remyelination Strategies for Multiple Sclerosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Adding erythropoietin to intravenous methylprednisolone in acute treatment of attacks of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders: A randomized controlled trial.Current journal of neurology · 2022Article
- EPO activates PI3K-IKKα-CDK1 signaling pathway to promote the proliferation of Glial Cells under hypoxia environment.Genetics and molecular biology · 2022Article
- Current and emerging disease-modulatory therapies and treatment targets for multiple sclerosis.Journal of internal medicine · 2021Review
- Review
- Review
- Leukemia inhibitory factor inhibits erythropoietin-induced myelin gene expression in oligodendrocytes.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2018Article
- How to pursue EPO in MS.Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England) · 2018Article
- Review
- Disease-Modifying Treatment in Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.Current treatment options in neurology · 2018Review
- Progressive multiple sclerosis, cognitive function, and quality of life.Brain and behavior · 2018Article
- Erythropoietin reduces experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis severity via neuroprotective mechanisms.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundErythropoietin (EPO) is a part of an endogenous neuroprotective system in the brain and may address pathophysiological mechanisms in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS).
objectiveTo evaluate a treatment effect of EPO on progressive MS.
methodsThis was a single-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial, in which 52 patients with secondary or primary progressive MS were allocated to treatment with recombinant EPO (48,000 IU) or placebo, administered intravenously 17 times during 24 weeks. Patients had an Expanded Disability Status Score (EDSS) from 4 to 6.5 and clinical progression without relapses in the 2 preceding years. The primary outcome was the change in a composite measure of maximum gait distance, hand dexterity, and cognition from baseline to 24 weeks.
resultsA total of 50 patients completed the study. Venesection was performed often but no thromboembolic events occurred. We found no difference in the primary outcome between the EPO and the placebo group using the intention-to-treat principle ( p = 0.22). None of the secondary outcomes, neither clinical nor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures showed any significant differences.
conclusionThis study provides class II evidence that treatment with high-dose EPO is not an effective treatment in patients with moderately advanced progressive MS.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.