In the past two decades several therapeutic options have become available for patients with multiple sclerosis. However, in individual patients it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of a given treatment because of the lack of objective measures that define efficacy.

Recently, a number of candidate biomarkers have emerged that can be used to measure ongoing treatment response. These include determination of protein levels that reflect disease activity and other aspects of pathophysiological processes such as oxidative stress and immune dysfunction as well as neural degeneration. Application of these biomarkers in clinical practice will help optimize therapeutic decision making.