DURHAM, N.C. – Marty Belin’s face lights up with a smile as she jokes about keeping her sense of humor during her 15-year fight against multiple sclerosis. 

Discuss This Story

She is one of nearly 350,000 people in the U.S. with multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system. MS interferes with the way nerve signals are sent between the brain and spinal cord and other parts of the body. It has changed Belin’s life in ways she never expected.

“My recreation time has changed,” she said.  “I used to hike and walk and enjoy being out, and to swim, and those things really aren’t possible anymore.”

An adventurer at heart, 58-year old Belin has visited every continent but one. Now she’s embarked on another challenge. She is facing her disease head-on by participating in a clinical trial at Raleigh Neurology Associates. 

The phase III trial, called MAESTRO-03, is significant because it is the first to address secondary-progressive MS(SPMS).  Belin has it, and so do almost half of all Americans with MS. 

“There are many patients for whom the standard drugs have not worked, or for whom the standard drugs are not applicable,” said. Dr. Mitch Friedman, Raleigh Neurology. “That’s because they have more of a progressive form of the disease.”

The two-year investigation is what’s known as a blind trial, so neither Belin nor her doctor knows if the drug she receives every six months is the real thing or just a placebo, but she has decided to think positive.

“It’s 50-50 that I’m on anything,” she said. “I may be on sugar water, but I just decided, ‘why not try something that has some promise or has some possibility of dealing with what I’ve got?’”

Learn More About Clinical Trials