Alzheimer’s May Protect Against Cancer?
Reported January 04, 2010
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — People who have Alzheimer’s disease may be less likely to develop cancer, and people who have cancer may be less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, a new study shows.
Researchers looked at 3,020 people 65 and older who were followed for up to eight years to see whether they developed dementia or cancer. At the start of the study 164 people already had Alzheimer’s and 522 people already had a cancer diagnosis.
For those who had Alzheimer’s disease at the start of the study, their risk of future hospitalization was lower by 69 percent compared to those who didn’t have the disease. For white individuals who were diagnosed with cancer at the start of the study, their risk of developing Alzheimer’s was 43 percent lower than those who did not have cancer.
“Discovering the links between these two conditions may help us better understand both diseases and open up avenues for possible treatments,” Catherine M. Roe, Ph.D., study author of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, was quoted as saying.
Source: Neurology, published online December 23, 2009
