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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Apparently bexarotene is a bust:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/08/13166642-alzheimers-treatment-not-the-hoped-for-miracle?lite">http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/08/13166642-alzheimers-treatment-not-the-hoped-for-miracle?lite</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Damn.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:0in'><b><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#354D7D'>Alzheimer's treatment not the hoped for miracle<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>By Robert Bazell, Chief science and medical correspondent, NBC News<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto'><span lang=EN style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Robert Bazell, NBC News<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>A cancer drug is turning out not to be the miraculous treatment for Alzheimer’s that many had hoped. Two papers out Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine warn families of Alzheimer’s victims not to seek treatment with Targretin (generic name: bexarotene). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Last February a study from Case Western Reserve University reported that the drug rapidly cleared the clumps of protein known as beta-amyloid, the hallmark of Alzheimer’s, from the brains of mice with a version of the disease. Since the drug was already on the market, approved as a treatment for lymphoma, doctors could immediately prescribe it in so-called off-label use for Alzheimer’s. And thousands of families understandably asked.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>But one mouse study does not prove that a drug is effective in humans. The drug is expensive – about $14,000 a year - and off-label use is often not covered by insurance. The drug can also bring on severe side-effects. In one paper in the Journal, Justin Lowenthal, Sara Hull and Steven Pearson of the National Institutes of Health and Massachusetts General Hospital conclude that for this drug “even if the patients are willing to take the risks for the potential benefit, the physician's answer should be no.” In the second paper Frank LaFerla of the University of California, Irvine observes “the field has been down this road before, as successes in preclinical models have thus far not translated well into the clinic.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>