3 ms·

Alzheimer's drug lecanemab hailed as momentous breakthrough

19 points by ZeljkoS 4y ago

instagraham 4y ago
Quite surprising that we have had two Alzheimer's breakthrough already this year. Interestingly, this comes despite the recent findings that a famous alzheimer's study faked its data. The fallout from that study which used falsified data was implying that decades of Alzheimer's research had been undone. This was probably not the case. https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid-data-what-does-it-mean https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid... Strangely not much written about this since July though. https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid-data-what-does-it-mean https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid...
kalimanzaro 4y ago
Not in the BBC breathless: "Second death linked to potential antibody treatment for Alzheimer’s disease Woman’s brain hemorrhage while receiving Eisai’s widely heralded lecanemab heightens concerns overs its safety 27 NOV 2022•8:00 PM•Science "Rudolph Castellani, a Northwestern neuropathologist who studies Alzheimer’s and conducted an autopsy at the request of the patient’s husband, called the case “very dramatic.” The report, co-authored by Castellani, concluded that the woman, like the other person whose death was linked to lecanemab..", https://archive.ph/FkYss https://archive.ph/FkYss https://archive.ph/nye78 https://archive.ph/nye78
- vidarh 4y ago
  While that is indeed.not in there, I wouldn't describe the article as "breathless". Two of the three first paragraphs throw cold water on things, and it spends more time both on risks and whether it's enough of an improvement to be worth it. That said, personally, having seen what it did to both my grandmother's, if I had symptoms it'd take a pretty high level of risk before I'd not want a drug giving even just a small slowdown in progression.
ekianjo 4y ago
> The slower decline with the drug was noticed using ratings of a person's symptoms. It's an 18-point scale, ranging from normal through to severe dementia. Those getting the drug were 0.45 points better off. marginal improvement for something that was administered every day? That's some ridiculously low levels of efficacy. Certainly does not qualify for the ridiculous headline talking about "breakthrough". BBC, tabloid level again.
- swores 4y ago
  It depends, but I think it's definitely a breakthrough since it's the first drug treatment after many years of people looking for a drug to treat it. I'm about to read about it now so I don't know whether it was discovered randomly or through actually understanding a mechanism they were creating a drug to target, but if the latter it would be a massive breakthrough potentially as it could signal that iterative work in the same area might lead to rapid improvement in the form of new drugs or even just by something like changing the dose in a way they've not yet tried. How is this not exciting? Breakthrough (and exciting) don't mean "this problem is solved fully". Or as the experts quoted in the article put it: 'Alzheimer's Research UK said the findings were "momentous".'
  - ekianjo 4y ago
    > How is this not exciting? Breakthrough (and exciting) don't mean "this problem is solved fully". Breakthrough means making progress. 0.45 points over 18 months on a 18 points scale looks more like random noise than anything else, even if it's statistically significant

19 points by ZeljkoS 4y ago

Quite surprising that we have had two Alzheimer's breakthrough already this year. Interestingly, this comes despite the recent findings that a famous alzheimer's study faked its data. The fallout from that study which used falsified data was implying that decades of Alzheimer's research had been undone. This was probably not the case. https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid-data-what-does-it-mean https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid... Strangely not much written about this since July though. https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid-data-what-does-it-mean https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid...

kalimanzaro 4y ago

Not in the BBC breathless: "Second death linked to potential antibody treatment for Alzheimer’s disease Woman’s brain hemorrhage while receiving Eisai’s widely heralded lecanemab heightens concerns overs its safety 27 NOV 2022•8:00 PM•Science "Rudolph Castellani, a Northwestern neuropathologist who studies Alzheimer’s and conducted an autopsy at the request of the patient’s husband, called the case “very dramatic.” The report, co-authored by Castellani, concluded that the woman, like the other person whose death was linked to lecanemab..", https://archive.ph/FkYss https://archive.ph/FkYss https://archive.ph/nye78 https://archive.ph/nye78

vidarh 4y ago
While that is indeed.not in there, I wouldn't describe the article as "breathless". Two of the three first paragraphs throw cold water on things, and it spends more time both on risks and whether it's enough of an improvement to be worth it. That said, personally, having seen what it did to both my grandmother's, if I had symptoms it'd take a pretty high level of risk before I'd not want a drug giving even just a small slowdown in progression.

ekianjo 4y ago

> The slower decline with the drug was noticed using ratings of a person's symptoms. It's an 18-point scale, ranging from normal through to severe dementia. Those getting the drug were 0.45 points better off. marginal improvement for something that was administered every day? That's some ridiculously low levels of efficacy. Certainly does not qualify for the ridiculous headline talking about "breakthrough". BBC, tabloid level again.

swores 4y ago
It depends, but I think it's definitely a breakthrough since it's the first drug treatment after many years of people looking for a drug to treat it. I'm about to read about it now so I don't know whether it was discovered randomly or through actually understanding a mechanism they were creating a drug to target, but if the latter it would be a massive breakthrough potentially as it could signal that iterative work in the same area might lead to rapid improvement in the form of new drugs or even just by something like changing the dose in a way they've not yet tried. How is this not exciting? Breakthrough (and exciting) don't mean "this problem is solved fully". Or as the experts quoted in the article put it: 'Alzheimer's Research UK said the findings were "momentous".'
- ekianjo 4y ago
  > How is this not exciting? Breakthrough (and exciting) don't mean "this problem is solved fully". Breakthrough means making progress. 0.45 points over 18 months on a 18 points scale looks more like random noise than anything else, even if it's statistically significant