Quebec willing to join MS treatment trials

Quebec's health minister says he's ready to join other provinces in a national clinical trial of a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis.

Yves Bolduc says he's open to Quebec collaborating on clinical studies, adding he will ask his own experts to provide him with an opinion.

Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald has written a letter to provincial, federal and territorial health ministers seeking their support.

She has called for a pan-Canadian randomized clinical trial of the efficacy of the so-called liberation procedure.

The treatment is based on an unproven theory that blocked veins in the neck or spinal cord are to blame for MS, a chronic disease of the nervous system that can affect vision, hearing, memory balance and mobility.

Bolduc says it's a method that shows promise but notes there are no clinical studies to show how efficient it is.

The MS community is divided on the issue, with many saying more studies are needed before the treatment can be tested on humans.