The bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine is associated with a significantly lower rate and risk for Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) among patients with bladder cancer, according to a study published online May 19 in JAMA Network Open.
Marc S. Weinberg, M.D., Ph.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues evaluated whether the BCG vaccine (3,388 patients) has a protective association with the risk for ADRD. The analysis included 6,467 patients (aged 50 years and older) initially diagnosed with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer between May 28, 1987, and May 6, 2021.
The researchers found that treatment with the BCG vaccine was associated with a lower rate of ADRD (hazard ratio [HR], 0.80), with an even lower rate of ADRD in patients aged 70 years or older at the time of BCG vaccine treatment (HR, 0.74). The BCG vaccine was associated with a lower risk for ADRD (five-year risk difference, −0.011) and a decreased risk for death in patients without an earlier diagnosis of ADRD (five-year risk difference, −0.056) in a competing risks analysis.
