Which is less worse: cancer or Alzheimer's disease?
Senile dementia protects against cancer
Newsciencedaily People With Alzheimer's Disease May Have Lower Risk of Cancer and Vice VersaThe risk of getting cancer and Alzheimer's disease at the same time is extremely low.
As Italian scientists have found, in elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the probability of parallel development of cancer is reduced by half compared to those who have no signs of senile dementia. Conversely, cancer patients have a 35 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than those who do not suffer from malignant neoplasms. The work was published on July 10 in the journal Neurology (Musicco et al., Inverse occurrence of cancer and Alzheimer's disease).
The study, which lasted for six years, involved 204,468 residents of Northern Italy aged 60 years and older. During this period, 21451 people were diagnosed with cancer, and 2832 people developed Alzheimer's disease. Only 161 participants were diagnosed with both cancer and senile dementia at the same time, which is significantly lower than statistical forecasts based on the frequency of both diseases in the average population. The analysis showed that those suffering from Alzheimer's disease have a halved risk of cancer, and those with cancer have a 35 percent reduced chance of senile dementia.
This phenomenon was first noticed back in 2005, but this is the first such large-scale study that confirmed its existence. The mechanisms behind it are not yet clear and their understanding, as noted by the lead author of the work, Massimo Musicco, may provide the key to the therapy of both diseases.
As suggested by Catherine Roe from Washington University (St. Louis, USA), the first of their specialists to draw attention to the existence of a mutually exclusive link between cancer and Alzheimer's disease, a key role in this mechanism may be played by the tumor suppressor gene TP53, whose activity has been found to be increased in dementia and completely turned off in 50 percent of cancerous tumors.
In addition, writes NewScientist magazine (Why cancer protects from Alzheimer's and vice versa), since both diseases are associated with the aging processes of the body, the phenomenon may be based on the aging-related termination of cell division. This mechanism, on the one hand, protects against cancer, which is based on uncontrolled cell proliferation, and on the other, in the case of a corresponding genetic predisposition, leads to excessive accumulation of such old cells in brain tissues, which leads to Alzheimer's disease.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.07.2013