Study: Prostate cancer drug stabilizes memory loss for a year in women with Alzheimer’s disease
Posted in: Medical Research News | Women’s Health News | Pharmaceutical News
Published on January 22, 2015 at 4:27 AM
Women with Alzheimer’s disease showed stable cognition for a year when a drug that is more commonly used to treat advanced prostate cancer was added to their drug regimen, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“This is the first time any therapy has been shown to stabilize memory loss over a year,” says Dr. Craig Atwood, co-lead author of the study and associate professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
The study was published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and is available here: http://iospress.metapress.com/content/n207096671247200.
The clinical trial, initiated by Dr. Richard Bowen at the former Voyager Pharmaceutical Corporation, followed 109 women with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Some were treated with the drug leuprolide acetate (Lupron Depot), used to treat cancer in men and severe endometriosis in women, and with an acetylcholineesterase inhibitor such as Aricept, which improves mood in people with the condition but does little to slow memory loss. Others taking an acetylcholineesterase inhibitor received low-dose Lupron alone or a placebo.
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