A new treatment for Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, which slows the condition’s progress, has been hailed a momentous breakthrough.
The drug, lecanemab, works by attacking the beta amyloid which builds up on the brain of dementia patients. However, the drug only works in early stages of Alzheimer’s, meaning that better diagnosis would be required.
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‘This is a very impressive trial. I think everyone in the audience was impressed by the data. There was some ARIA in treated individuals but the majority were asymptomatic. This means the patient was not aware of it and it was only picked up by imaging, and in most cases treatment was continued,’ said Prof John Hardy, Group Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL.
‘There were no treatment related deaths (two deaths, one had atrial fibrillation, the other was having TPA treatment for other reasons which can cause haemorrhage).’
According to the Alzheimer's Society, more than 850,000 people in the UK have some form of dementia. More than half have Alzheimer's, but everyone would need testing for lecanemab to provide a significant impact.
‘The full trial data confirms that treatment with lecanemab clearly removes amyloid protein deposits from the brain in a period of months and also has beneficial effects on other hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, including tau. This is remarkable as amyloid accumulates over decades in the brain. Therefore, it is extremely encouraging to see positive effects of lecanemab in a trial of just 18 months,’ said Prof Bart De Strooper, Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Group Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL.