What is the link between cancer and Alzheimer’s? A little know fact is that there seems to be a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (a common form of dementia) in patients with various cancers. A recent study looked looked for this link with skin cancers and found a surprisingly large effect. Looking back at data from 82,925 patients aged 60 to 89 years old, researchers found the development of either melanoma or none melanoma skin cancer was associated with a significantly lower risk of subsequent Alzheimer’s disease. The mechanism for this “reverse association” is not clear, but hopefully further research may help elucidate more about the development of Alzheimer’s and ultimately may lead to strategies to decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s while avoiding the development of skin cancer.

Article Citation

Inverse Association for Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease Subsequent to Both Melanoma and Non-Melanoma Skin Cancers in a Large, Urban, Single-Centre, Midwestern US Patient Population
J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 2018 Mar 24;[EPub Ahead of Print], E Ibler, G Tran, KA Orrell, L Serrano, S Majewski, KA Sable, R Thiede, AE Laumann, DP West, B Nardone