Dementias and tumors. Two diseases that affect often (but not always) one and the same target: the elderly. Two diseases that are exploding in terms of the incidence seen in the progressive increase in life expectancy. Given that both affect older citizens in large numbers, you might expect that there is an overlap between the two conditions, namely that many older people are interested in both. And, instead, seems to be just the opposite. Several studies, in fact, have found lower rates of cancer in patients with dementia, particularly those with Alzheimer’s disease and vice versa for lower rates of dementia among cancer survivors.
An inverse relationship also analyzed in a recent scientific review conducted by’ national Health Institute from which it emerged that in patients with Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease the risk of developing cancer is halved compared to the general population, and vice versa: patients with cancer have a reduced risk of 50% of the onset of neurodegenerative diseases (in particular Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease). In short, between the two conditions would seem to be an inverse association. Two diseases on the rise in The 2018 cases of dementia have been all over the world more than 50 million. Ten million new sufferers every year, one every three seconds. According to the World Alzheimer Report, that figure could reach 82 million in 2030 and 152 million in 2050. In Italy, people with dementia are more than 1 million, most of which are suffering from Alzheimer’s, the disease that today affects about 5% of people over 65 years of age. Numbers at double-digit rates for the cancers. In 2018 have been estimated, in the world, more than 18 million new cases of cancer. In Italy in 2019 were estimated 371mila diagnosis. The revision of the Iss last December at the national Institute of Health held a workshop entitled “Neurodegeneration and carcinogenesis: what are the possible causes of an inverse association?” during which have been taken into consideration the various studies conducted on the possible relationships between tumors and dementias. The experts concluded that the probability that a same person can have both diseases is low: “The hypothesis is that the existence of competitive mechanisms for which if a person has a chance to go out to meet the cancer has a reverse of other diseases such as the dementias,” explains Nicola Vanacore , scientific director of the Observatory Dementias of the Iss adds: “That workshop is only a starting point for the initiation of other, more in-depth research involving different specialists, from the epidemiologist, the pharmacologist, the oncologist and the neurologist, because it is a complex topic. We want to start a research project on trees”. Neurodegeneration and carcinogenesis studies examined from the Iss are so many. For example, there is one study of patients in Rome suffering from Parkinson’s disease in which was found a reduced risk of 50% of onset of cancer and risk of cancer mortality is 44% lower. Another study was conducted in Milan on 21mila Italian patients with cancer, and about two thousand suffering from dementia: “You have seen – explains Vanacore, that there was a reduced risk of 35% of dementia in cancer patients and 43% of tumor in patients with Alzheimer’s disease”. Inflammation as a factor in common, But because there is this relationship between these two families of diseases? “Because in the life of a single person, the probability of having two diseases that have long latencies (in the first place the symptoms) is very low,” replies Vanacore, who adds: “in Addition, inflammation is one of the mechanisms at the basis of neurodegenerative diseases and of the tumor”. The trials of new medicines, starting from this research, it was formulated the hypothesis that anticancer drugs may exert favorable effects on dementia. For example, a drug used for the treatment of advanced carcinoma of the prostate and endometriosis severe, was administered to women with Alzheimer’s disease from mild to moderate in one study of 48 weeks published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The researchers found that women treated with a high dose of this drug have preserved cognitive function, on the condition that they were already using a acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Currently in the United States, other trials on patients with dementia in which you use anti-cancer drugs to verify the effectiveness. “It’s mainly drugs that belong to the category of inhibitors of the family of protein kinases”, clarifies Vanacore. A couple of years ago, were published the first results that were negative, but the researchers point out that you’re going in new directions and that it will take more time. A short will come out the latest results”.
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