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Transcripts
DR. ROCK:
I would like to say a few words
now about the relapses in our patients. We've
been following some of our patients through up
to 10 years, of course those who entered the
studies near the end we only have a few years'
data on, but basically overall at this point in
time we are seeing a 35 percent relapse
over this 10-year period.
The interesting thing from my
perspective on this is that, as I told you
before, there's nothing particularly predictive,
according to the laboratory markers, but there's
also no pattern for the relapses. You can see
that some patients relapse early in the course
of disease; others very late.
This patient was perfectly fine
for years and years and then relapsed. But
we're at the point now where the patients
themselves are all being taught that such
relapses are possible. And I have had patients
represent to me simply by phoning up and saying
I've got a few small blue spots on my arm, do
you think I should come in, and they came in
and they were right. So we were able to get
them very early in the disease and there's no
question at all that this therapy, which is
removing material and replacing material, is
absolutely best done if done early in the course
of the disease.
