Lecanemab. Do you know what it is, yet? Well, let me tell you: according to the BBC website, it’s the “first drug to slow the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer’s.” That’s the good news. The not so good news appears to be that Lecanemab isn’t a cure and only slows the march of Alzheimer’s by 27%, so maybe we shouldn’t be so cheerful and optimistic after all? No, says Prof Tara Spires-Jones, from the University of Edinburgh. “It’s a big deal because we’ve had a 100% failure rate for a long time”.
To the best of my knowledge, I have no family history of Alzheimer’s, but it is one of the diseases I most fear. In fact, I often obsess about it when I have a memory lapse, like when I’m trying to remember a name I know very well. And the more I try, the harder it gets until I relax and often the answer comes. However, I am familiar with the disease, as well as the various dementias that wreck lives. My stepfather’s life ended when he was overwhelmed with both Parkinson’s and dementia and it was gruesome to watch. I visited him every week even though he had long forgotten who I was, as the disease turned him into someone he wasn’t, if you get my drift. Then, in my years of part time work for charities, I saw much more of it. If I get it, please take me to Switzerland.
Now, finally, we are the starting line in making Alzheimer’s a disease of the past. It would be foolish for me to predict the future of science I don’t really understand but we can hope that one day when someone gets diagnosed, the disease can be controlled and, eventually, cured. This is definitely a good day.
