Older people with Alzheimer’s disease are less likely to also have cancer, and older people with cancer are less likely to also have Alzheimer’s disease.

This is according to a study published in Neurology on 10 July 2013.

The study of 204,468 Italian people aged 60 and older found that over six years, 21,451 people developed cancer and 2,832 people developed Alzheimer’s disease. 161 people had both cancer and Alzheimer’s. That number would have been expected to be 281 for cancer and 246 for Alzheimer’s.

This means the risk of cancer was cut in half for people with Alzheimer’s disease and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease was reduced by 35 per cent for people with cancer.

Direct link to the study available below:

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Links

http://dx.doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e31829c5ec1