The next step is a preventative treatment With no effective cure for Alzheimer's, and drugs designed to slow the onset continuing to fail, the 5.5 million Americans already living with Alzheimer's face a devastating future. Even though the blood test can't help these patients, it will put the $1.4 billion in federal research money for Alzheimer's — still significantly less than funding for cancer and heart disease — to good use.
If doctors can easily and effectively catch Alzheimer's in its early stages, they can enroll patients in experimental trials for preventative treatments. The more asymptomatic patients doctors can identify early and put in trials, the sooner researchers can develop preventative treatments. A lack of qualified patients for clinical trials has been cited by Dr. Jeff Cummings of the Cleveland Clinic, a leading authority on Alzheimer's trials, as one of the the primary reasons for the widespread drug-trial failures.