Project will contextualize landmark DISCO-MS trial findings and center the perspectives of older adults living with MS in clinical conversations about DMT de-escalation
Waltham, MA — March 19, 2026 — Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis (ACP) has been awarded funding through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award Program, an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).The funding will support a project focused on sharing results of a study of older adults living with MS and disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) to facilitate better-informed decisions about care.
As the average age of people living with MS now exceeds 55, decisions about whether to continue, reduce, or stop DMTs are increasingly common. Older adults, however, remain significantly underrepresented in clinical trials, leaving critical gaps in the evidence needed to guide those decisions.
The initiative builds on the DISCO-MS randomized controlled trial, the first large-scale study to evaluate stopping DMTs in stable older adults with MS. While the trial did not confirm that stopping therapy was as safe as continuing it, relapse rates were low, most observed disease activity showed up on scans without causing noticeable symptoms, and patient satisfaction was notably higher among those who discontinued therapy. Those findings are now entering clinical and patient conversations, and accurate interpretation is essential. Nuanced trial results can be difficult to translate into practice without the kind of contextual scaffolding this initiative is designed to provide.
“DISCO-MS is a landmark study, and it deserves to be understood in its full context,” said ACP Chief Scientific Officer Stephanie Buxhoeveden. “For older adults navigating these decisions with their doctors, getting the interpretation right isn’t an academic exercise. It has real consequences for how they live with this disease.”
What distinguishes this effort is both its focus on translating research into practice and its intentional centering of patient perspectives, something largely absent from the literature on aging and DMT use in MS. Rather than presenting trial results in isolation, ACP will synthesize DISCO-MS alongside other clinical trials, observational studies, and real-world data on treatment decisions and aging in MS.
Two virtual convenings will bring together older adults living with MS, care partners, clinicians, researchers, and advocacy leaders to interpret this evidence together and co-develop plain-language resources for patients and clinicians. Patients and caregivers will be active participants in shaping how findings are communicated.
Anticipated outputs include a publicly available review of what the research shows about MS treatment and aging, resources to help patients and clinicians have better-informed conversations, a consensus statement, and a research agenda identifying the highest-priority questions for future patient-centered and comparative effectiveness research in this space.
PCORI is a nonprofit organization with a mission to fund research designed to provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed healthcare decisions. In addition to funding this Engagement Award, PCORI also funded the University of Colorado Denver to conduct the DISCO-MS study.
The investigators who conducted the DISCO-MS trial provided a letter of support and will be kept informed of the project’s progress and outputs.
About the Accelerated Cure Project
The Accelerated Cure Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating research to find cures for multiple sclerosis. ACP operates as a research ecosystem — connecting people, data, and expertise across the MS community through programs including iConquerMS, the ACP Repository, and Inclusive Research Engagement. Learn more at acceleratedcure.org.
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Contact:
Cristal Balis
Director of Marketing and Communications
cbalis@acceleratedcure.org