Does ADT increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease?

This is another retrospective, data-mining paper, with data from16,888 men. ADT shows a slight, but significant association with the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The average age of the men was 71 years old and, if treated for more than a year the risk of Alzheimer’s disease was approximately twice that of men not treated with ADT. This would be consistent with earlier data showing that ADT carries a risk of cognitive impairment (see: blog entry for Gonzalez et al 2015; J Clinical Oncology).

 

Nead KT, Gaskin G, Chester C, Swisher-McClure S, Dudley JT, Leeper NJ, & Shah NH. (2015) Androgen Deprivation Therapy and Future Alzheimer's Disease Risk. J Clin Oncol 34, 566-71. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26644522