Lou Ruvo Center Lands Grant To Study Ms

Posted: Feb. 1, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.

As Dr. Timothy West watched, Jason Buckley walked down a hallway at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health with a cane.

"Man, that's great, you were riding a scooter or on crutches not that long ago," said West, who is treating Buckley with a drug regimen and targeted physical therapy to relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, MS. It is an often debilitating disease for about 400,000 people in the United States in which the body's immune system eats away at the protective sheath that covers a person's nerves, a process that interferes with the communication between the brain and the rest of the body.

His increased mobility had the 36-year-old Buckley smiling Wednesday. So did something else West told him: The MS program at the Ruvo Center has been awarded a grant of $1.35 million over three years by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, allowing patient participation in research trials, the funding of additional staff, the purchase of diagnostic equipment and the expansion of social service, community outreach and education programs to underserved communities throughout Nevada.

"To me, it means we'll have access here to the latest drugs in clinical trials," Buckley said. "Now I don't have to move. There's one drug I hope to use that looks good at stopping progression of the disease. It's very promising. I'm super excited."

Over five decades, the Hilton Foundation has awarded more than $18 million in grants to researchers and medical practitioners in hopes of finding a cure and improved quality of life for those affected by MS. Marilyn Hilton, the late wife of former Hilton Hotels chain co-chairman Barron Hilton ---- his father, Conrad, founded the hotels ---- died of complications from MS. In 2001, the Hilton Foundation opened a MS center in Marilyn Hilton's name on the University of California, Los Angeles campus.

"When someone you love is afflicted with MS, it opens your heart to the suffering that others go through," said Hilton Foundation CEO Steven M. Hilton, whose mother had the disease. "The Lou Ruvo Center is helping patients and their families cope with this disease and is poised to make an important contribution to the fight against MS."

People with severe cases of MS may lose the ability to walk or speak clearly. MS can be difficult to diagnose early in the course of the disease because symptoms such as numbness and double vision often come and go.

West, the only MS specialist in Southern Nevada, has seen more than 1,400 patients since the MS program opened at the Ruvo Center about 16 months ago. In the coming year, West said he believes the Cleveland Clinic will add another physician to the MS program in Las Vegas.

The National MS Society estimates there are more than 2,500 people with the disease in the Las Vegas Valley.

Originally posted here:
Lou Ruvo Center Lands Grant To Study Ms