Survival in multiple sclerosis: things have changed

Incidence of malignant neoplasms and mortality in people affected by multiple sclerosis in the epoch of disease-modifying treatments: A population-based study on Tuscan residents

“…As already pointed out by other Authors (Scalfari et al, 2013), such differences could be due to multiple factors, such as the methods adopted for the individuation of COD, the clinical-demographic characteristics of the study population, and the epoch of observation. This latter variable might account for changes in both the diagnostic criteria of MS (inclusion of higher proportions of "benign cases" in more recent studies than in earlier ones) and the provision of DMTs and supportive care (Grytten, 2017), with subsequent improvement in the quality of life and MS-related disability (Harding et al, 2020). The reduction in MS COD is consistent with the observation of standardized mortality rates similar between the MS population and the control cohort, suggesting that in this study the diagnosis of MS is not associated with increased risk of death.…”