Alzheimer’s Prevents Cancer and Cancer Prevents Alzheimer’s


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A group of researchers recruited 3,020 people aged 65 and older, of which


164 people (5.4%) already had Alzheimer’s disease and 522 people (17.3%) already had a cancer diagnosis. All of them followed up for an average of 5 years to see whether they developed dementia and an average of 8 years to see whether they developed cancer. During the study, 478 people developed dementia and 376 people developed invasive cancer. Surprisingly, for people who had Alzheimer’s disease at the start of the study, the risk of future cancer hospitalization was reduced by 69% compared to those who did not have Alzheimer’s disease when the study started. For Caucasian people who had cancer when the study started, their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease was reduced by 43% compared to people who did not have cancer at the start of the study.

The study also attempted to find similar links between cancer and vascular dementia. However, no link was found. Vascular dementia is caused from brain damage due to vascular pathology, while Alzheimer’s disease is neurodegenerative. Earlier research has already confirmed that people with Parkinson’s disease (which is also neurodegenerative) are protected from certain types of cancer and vice versa.
Neurodegeneration involves death of cells for no reason, while cancer involves proliferation of cells by division. In simplified terms, whatever is the biological factor which causes cell proliferation (cancer), the same factor is preventing the death of the cells and vice versa – which makes perfect logical sense.
Further research is required to see if this relationship applies to all types of cancer (cancer at different locations, benign vs malignant). A further detailed understanding into this relationship promises solutions for various conditions, including one of the worst enemies of humans – cancer!