A drug used to treat prostate cancer has been found to halt memory loss in women, researchers say.
University of Wisconsin researchers gave post-menopausal women the prostate drug Lupron Depot (leuprolide acetate) in combination with the Alzheimer’s disease drug Aricept (donepezil hydrochloride).
The study found that women treated with the combination had almost no decline in their scores on a standard memory over the course of a year. Meanwhile, control subjects showed significant declines.
"This is the first time any therapy has been shown to stabilize memory loss over a year," says Dr. Craig Atwood, co-lead author of the study and associate professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Future research is needed to confirm the findings, Dr. Atwood added.
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