First patient treated with new Alzheimer's drug
Disease can be effectively slowed down for the first time
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The first patient with early Alzheimer's disease has now been treated with the new antibody therapy at Leipzig University Hospital (UKL). The recently approved drug with the active ingredient lecanemab is the first to effectively slow the progression of this neurogenerative disease at an early stage. After extensive preparations, the neurologists at the UKL have now established the new, complex therapy. Suitable patients can now benefit from the new treatment.
"We are very pleased that we can now offer this therapy to the population of Leipzig," says the attending physician Prof. Dr. Dorothee Saur. Together with a large interdisciplinary team from various specialist departments, the senior physician from the Department of Neurology at the UKL has spent the last few months creating the conditions for the new treatment method to be made available to patients. "This is a very big step for us, because until now there has been no therapy for Alzheimer's disease that would have effectively slowed down the progression of the disease," says Prof. Saur.
Now, for the first time, a drug is available that can stop Alzheimer's disease in a group of patients. One of the conditions for this is that the disease is diagnosed at an early stage. This is the case with the first patient in Leipzig. The 66-year-old has so far been very mildly affected with the first signs. To ensure that this remains the case and that she can continue to maintain her independence in everyday life, she now receives a fortnightly infusion for an initial period of one year. In the first phase of treatment, this is accompanied by several MRI examinations to ensure that there is no excessive inflammatory reaction in the brain. The treatment also includes several examinations using PET, positron emission tomography. This checks whether the treatment is successful. "If this is the case, we can see a reduction in the pathological amyloid plaques in the brain, which indicate the presence of Alzheimer's disease," explains neurologist Saur.
In this combination, this is a very complex and extensive treatment method, which represents a major challenge for all those involved in bringing together different specialist areas such as neurology, neuroradiology and nuclear medicine. "We accompany the patients over many months, during which we regularly carry out the infusions, MRI and PET examinations in an outpatient setting," continues Saur. If the therapy is successful, it is initially discontinued. "As we cannot reverse the changes in the brain, but only slow them down, we also have to observe whether the symptoms worsen again afterwards - in which case the therapy may have to be resumed," says Prof. Saur, describing the next steps.
Following the first application, the interdisciplinary dementia board at the UKL is now making decisions about the next potential patients, and others are currently being pre-screened. "Not all Alzheimer's patients are eligible for this not entirely risk-free treatment," says Saur. After weighing up the benefits and risks, only a small group is suitable, although interest is high. Every week, the dementia consultation at the UKL receives around 50 calls from people who have high hopes for the new treatment. After lecanemab, donanemab is now the second active substance available for the treatment of early Alzheimer's disease. "I hope that we will soon have more and different options to help more of these people. The chances of this are currently very good."
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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