Drug slows cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients, study reveals

A clinical trial has shown that a drug slows cognitive decline in patients with early stages of Alzheimer's.

It came after decades of failure in the field and encouraged experts to say that Alzheimer's could be treated.

Bart De Strooper is the director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London.

It can be expected that the benefits will become more obvious over time.

The drug lecanemab is used to remove clumps ofamyloid from the brain

It is not known how much the clumps drive Alzheimer's, but in patients with inherited forms of the disease, they appear to pave the way for a cascade of brain changes that destroy brain cells.

The developers of Lecanemab announced top line results from the clinical trial in September, but researchers in the field have been waiting for the full data to be published.

The drug reduced the decline in patients' mental skills by 27% over 18 months.

A new era of disease modification for Alzheimer's disease has been confirmed. Nick Fox is professor of clinical neurology and director of the Dementia Research Centre at the University College London.

Alzheimer's is the leading cause of dementia, accounting for two-thirds of the 55 million sufferers. In the UK, it is the leading cause of death.

The condition costs the UK £25 billion a year and is expected to double to £50 billion by the end of the century. As the disease progresses, people can find themselves lost in familiar places, struggling with simple tasks, and unable to eat or move without assistance.

Efforts to slow, halt or reverse the disease have failed, costing pharmaceutical companies billions of dollars and forcing some to leave the field entirely. Many drugs didn't work in trials because they hit the wrong target or were tested in patients who were too advanced for the trial. A new generation of drugs that offer better and better control of the disease is expected because of the positive results from lecanemab.

There are a number of issues that could affect the drug's adoption.

It is not clear if patients would notice any benefit from Lecanemab, which costs between £10,000 and £30,000 a year.

It is not known when it will be approved by the UK's Medicines and healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the National Institute for Health and care excellence.

The health service doesn't have enough staff to give every patient an injection of the drug every two weeks, it doesn't have enough diagnostic tests to identify those most likely to benefit, and it doesn't have the equipment to give multiple scans.

Two deaths on the trial were linked to the drug, prompting questions about the drug's safety.

13 people died on the trial, six who received the drug and seven who didn't, according to the report. The deaths were not considered to be related to the drug, according to the report.

"Lecanemab is not a panacea but it provides proof of concept that Alzheimer's is not an impossible problem: it is potentially treatable and perhaps one day even preventable."

It is likely that combination therapies will be needed, as we need to expand our research and investigate different drugs.

While the results were good, it was important to remember that lecanemab is not a cure for Alzheimer's.

The people taking the drug did not decline in their cognitive skills as much as the other people. There is not an accepted definition of clinically meaningful effects in the cognitive test, and it is not clear whether the modest reduction in decline will make a difference to people living with dementia.

The results could be "gamechanging" according to the Alzheimer's Society.

There is still a long way to go before lecanemab is available on the National Health Service, and we are waiting for clarity on how and when the approval process will take place in the UK. Lecanemab can only be given to people with early Alzheimer's who have amyloid in their brain. People with other types of dementia or Alzheimer's disease can't benefit from this drug.