Doctors in the United Kingdom say a stem cell treatment for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) has enabled some patients to walk again.
About 20 people have received the new treatment in a clinical trial at a hospital in the city of Sheffield, with the tests also being run in the US, Sweden and Brazil.
MS affects more than two million people worldwide while in Australia around 23-thousand people have the condition.
Matthew Miles, from MS Research Australia, says that while promising, the new stem cell treatment may not be suitable for everyone.
"Everyone's MS is different so it's really critical there's a range of therapies. Often when I talk about symptoms of MS on TV or the media people would write in and say, that's not my experience of MS, I don't have that. So it's very much an individual thing."
The ground-breaking trial, which has taken place over the last three years, first sets out to destroy the patient's faulty immune system using chemotherapy.
Patients then receive bone marrow transplants using stem cells harvested from the patient's own blood, which haven't yet developed the flaws that cause MS.
Professor John Snowden is a consultant haematologist involved in the UK trial.
He spoke to the BBC about the treatment.
"We're using the stem cells as building blocks to rekindle an immune system, that immune system being reset or rebooted back to a time point before it caused MS in those patients."
Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40, but it can affect younger and older people too, but roughly three times as many women have MS than men.
Melbourne-based MS advocate Astrid Evans was diagnosed with the condition in 2013.
She has a relapsing, remitting form of MS - which means she can be well one day and unable to walk the next.
Ms Evans admits she's optimistic yet cautious about any new MS treatments.
"They promise us a new miracle drug every couple of months. But it takes five to 10 years to come to market. Hope is really important but I am kind of surprised by the BBC running it so positively when the actual research hasn't been finalised. There are incredibly positive and profound personal stories which I love seeing but that's not the clinical results I kind of wonder why other drugs that are also suitable for all different types of MS haven't been getting the same attention."
Dr Martin Pera is Professor of Stem Cell Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Pera warned the UK trial results are preliminary in nature and he cautioned against seeking out unproven treatments overseas.
"There are clinics offering this treatment outside of a trial setting, at considerable cost and obviously patients who are suffering will look for answers. But really until we have carefully conducted trials that look in a very careful way at the outcomes of this treatment will we know whether it's any good."
