The Yukon government says it will team up with Saskatchewan to carry out
clinical trials of a controversial vein therapy for multiple sclerosis.

Saskatchewan announced earlier this year it will fund trials into so-called "liberation therapy," a form of angioplasty in which neck
veins are opened up with small balloons to improve the flow of blood

from the brain to the heart.

Yukon Health Minister Glenn Hart said details of its agreement with Saskatchewan are in development, but he said Yukoners should be selected
for the clinical trials.

"We've chosen to move with Saskatchewan because they have a high number of MS patients in the province," Hart told CBC News. "We're
hoping that with the greater number that we can kind of get in on the

research and be included in a greater number of results."

Vein therapy is based on an unproven theory of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) — put forward by Italian doctor Paolo
Zamboni — that blocked veins in the neck or spine are to blame for MS.

The therapy is not approved by Health Canada, and much of the medical community has been skeptical of the procedure.

Treatment helped Whitehorse man

But some Canadians with MS, including Tim Cant of Whitehorse, have
travelled overseas to receive the treatment and have reported some

benefits from it.

Tim Cant lifts weights at a Whitehorse gym on Friday. Cant, who was

diagnosed with MS three years ago, said he's had a new lease on life

since he underwent vein therapy in June. (CBC)

Those who do go overseas for vein therapy have to pay for the procedure
themselves, as well as pay for any followup health-care costs.

But Cant said he has a new lease on life, thanks to the treatment he received in India in June.

"Oh, it's great! I walk up and I'm proud, I'm so happy. It's something that I never thought I'd do again," the 51-year-old said
Friday at a local fitness centre, where he has been working out.

"I would climb up the stairs before, but I'd be hanging on. I'd take the elevator as much as I could to watch my grandson play hockey and so
on. This [the gym] was off-limits for me. I didn't have the energy."

It's estimated that about 100 Yukoners have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease that can destroy a person's nervous system
and lead to loss of vision, severely impaired mobility and death.

Hart said he will meet with the territory's MS group early in the new year.

"It's a step in the right direction," Hart said. "We want to be responsible, we want to ensure that the actual therapy is going to be
safe for those applicants who plan to take it in the future."