A Cancer Drug May Help Treat Alzheimer's And Other Forms Of Dementia

There?s no disguising the fact that once-promising drugs for treating Alzheimer?s and other forms of dementia, which together affect 5 million people in the U.S., have fizzled pretty dismally in recent months. According to MSN Money, 150 different companies are working on Alzheimer?s drugs, and recent disappointments in several of the drugs? efficacy have some companies beginning to wonder if the research cost-effective (the article goes on to outline some of the bigger clinical trial failures in the last couple of years). A new study from Georgetown University Medical Center, however, offers an interesting approach to dementia treatment: It uses low does of a cancer drug to induce the aberrant brain cells to devour their own insides, thereby preventing the gunky plaques and tangles of dementia from aggregating.