[ExI] Jaw-dropping CWRU Alzheimer's breakthrough?

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: Re: [ExI] Jaw-dropping CWRU Alzheimer's breakthrough?

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 6:15 PM, spike  wrote:
<snip>
>
>> That's where we are still heading, although the doctor is reluctant...
>

>...I think the problem could be age.  The average age for patients that are
prescribed Targretin seems to be around 55 years. This is probably about
15-20 years before the average age for dementia developing.  So it could be
self-selecting for being given to people that don't have dementia.  BillK
_______________________________________________

Ja that is only one mechanism of self-selection.  The kind of skin cancer
that Targretin treats is non-lethal, at least in the near term.  So
Alzheimer's patients are perhaps passed over for this expensive medication.
After I thought that through, I realized there was probably not much
information content in the finding that there are no Alzheimer's patients
receiving this treatment.  It is by itself not necessarily an indication
that Targretin was having any beneficial effect on skin cancer patients.

Damn.  {8-[

Still I am astonished that the internet medical community is not buzzing
with reports this week on AD patients who took a friend or family member's
Targretin, and if so, what if anything happened.  My notion is that people
are far likely to post that kind of information if it is notably bad or
notably good, but may be more likely to post nothing if the medications did
nothing.

Damn.  {8-[

spike