Cancer Survivors May Have Lower Odds for Dementia

A study in JAMA Network Open found older adults who survive cancer have better memory performance, reports WebMD . The researchers tracked older Americans for 16 years, and determined those who developed cancer usually had sharper memory skills — both before and after diagnosis — compared to cancer-free individuals. This appears to back the hypothesis that certain biological processes that contribute to cancer may actually shield against dementia. Finding their underlying mechanisms "might point the way to strategies to prevent dementia," suggests University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine Professor Maria Glymour. Her team cites the example of an enzyme called PIN1, whose activity is enhanced in cancer, but lessened in Alzheimer's. PIN1 is suspected of helping prevent accumulation of abnormal proteins in the brain.