Endpoints in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease Trials

Because this piece does not have an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

Researchers, pharmaceutical companies, funders, regulators, and other stakeholders in the scientific fight against Alzheimer’s disease have expressed great interest in the evaluation of putative "preclinical Alzheimer’s disease treatments," interventions that are initiated in cognitively unimpaired persons and intended to postpone, reduce the risk of, or completely prevent progression to the clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Thank goodness. With the growing number of persons living to older ages, preclinical Alzheimer’s disease treatments are urgently needed to avert a catastrophic public health problem, and at least some of the proposed treatments may need to be initiated before the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia stages of Alzheimer’s disease, when the pathology is already extensive, to be most efficacious.