Australasian MS AHSCT Registry

Autologous Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (AHSCT) is an immunosuppressive chemotherapy treatment combined with reinfusion of blood stem cells to help re-build the immune system. It has been used to treat some people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in Australia and internationally. However, more data on the long-term outcomes of this treatment and its most appropriate use for people with MS is still required. You can read more about what AHSCT is and the research behind it here.

To help contribute to the international efforts to increase our understanding of this treatment, MS Research Australia established the Australasian MS AHSCT Registry in 2011. MS Australia (with initial funding support from MSWA) continues to coordinate and fund the Registry, which is overseen by a steering committee of haematologists, neurologists and people living with MS. The Registry collects data and monitors the outcomes of Australians who have undergone AHSCT for MS. As of 2026, the Registry has expanded to include data from New Zealand, reflecting a growing trans-Tasman collaboration.

This Registry will hopefully add to the data being gathered worldwide on treatment effects, patient characteristics and outcomes, and long-term prognosis of patients following AHSCT. Together with international evidence, the Registry aims to increase understanding of the role AHSCT may play as part of the range of treatments available for MS, and under which circumstances it is most appropriately used.

The collection and analysis of new patient data are still ongoing, as well as collection of longer-term follow up data of people who have already undergone AHSCT. As of August 2022, over 100 people from around Australia have contributed data to the Registry.

Once a significant number of participants have been registered, and three years’ clinical follow-up data post-AHSCT has been collected, the Registry will be in a position to have good quality, reliable data and will publish the findings in peer reviewed medical journals. Publishing the outcomes from the Registry is a priority and these results will be made available to the MS community as soon as possible following scientific publication.

The Registry is collecting detailed treatment information and clinical characteristics of people who have undergone AHSCT. This information must be provided, with the consent of the patient, by the treating neurologist and by the haematologist who supervised the AHSCT procedure.

The types of information collected by the Registry include:

• Gender
• Date of MS onset
• Date of MS diagnosis
• Disease course
• Disease duration
• Past MS treatment history
• Chemotherapy conditioning regimen used
• Date of AHSCT & procedure details (cell counts, hospital stay, complications and treatments)
• EDSS (disability) score pre & post AHSCT (including longer term follow-up)
• Clinical details of disease severity pre and post AHSCT (including longer term follow-up)
• MRI lesions pre & post AHSCT (including longer term follow-up)