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You may have read reports about a new blood test to detect early brain changes that can flag common markers of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s moved one step closer to clinical use and could be a game-changer, according to researchers.
Up to two decades before people develop the characteristic memory loss and confusion of Alzheimer’s disease, damaging clumps of protein start to build up in their brains. Continue reading
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There’s no doubt that a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is devastating for both the person who receives it and for their family.
Although it’s the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., affecting nearly 6 million people, finding a cure or even a long-term treatment has proven elusive. Most drugs never make it out of Phase I or II trials. Continue reading
Image: ProPublica Illinois
Most often, reporting on medical studies means recounting numbers, demographic details, findings and statistical probability values that are so abstract that it’s easy to forget they all refer to actual people enrolled in the study. With epidemiological studies, the researchers themselves often never meet the people they report on, especially if it’s a retrospective study that primarily relies on electronic medical records.
But clinical trials are a different story. Continue reading
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You may have recently heard about the multimillion-dollar donation that Bill Gates and Leonard Lauder made to support research into biomarkers for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
The Diagnostics Accelerator initiative is part of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s (ADDF) effort to speed diagnosis and develop drugs that can prevent, treat, and cure the disease. Lauder was an ADDF co-founder. Continue reading
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The ongoing push for open science and greater transparency in medical research just notched another win following new rules from the National Institutes of Health regarding federally funded research involving humans. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, the NIH is broadening the definition of clinical trials for what must be registered and reported at ClinicalTrials.gov.
“Researchers must now report their findings on the site within a year of study completion or risk losing future funding,” wrote reporters Daniela Hernandez and Amy Dockser Marcus. Continue reading
Photo: Lydia Polimeni, National Institutes of Health via Flickr
A Stat investigation has found that “prestigious medical research institutions have flagrantly violated a federal law requiring public reporting of study results, depriving patients and doctors of complete data to gauge the safety and benefits of treatments.”
The violations have left gaping holes in a federal database used by millions of patients, their relatives, and medical professionals, often to compare the effectiveness and side effects of treatments for deadly diseases such as advanced breast cancer.