Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27101831›Full record

ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences2017

Is Cancer Protective for Subsequent Alzheimer's Disease Risk? Evidence From the Utah Population Database.

Heidi A Hanson, Kevin P Horn, Kelli M Rasmussen, John M Hoffman, Ken R Smith

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
24citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.3field-weighted citation impact, top 12% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. The inverse association between cancer history and incident cognitive impairment: Addressing attrition bias.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024
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  13. Investigating the association between cancer and the risk of dementia: Results from the Memento cohort.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2021
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Cancer and risk of Alzheimer's disease: Small association in a nationwide cohort study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2020
    Article
  16. Family Study Designs Informed by Tumor Heterogeneity and Multi-Cancer Pleiotropies: The Power of the Utah Population Database.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2020
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Heidi A HansonPopulation Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Kevin P HornCenter for Quantitative Cancer Imaging, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Kelli M RasmussenCenter for Quantitative Cancer Imaging, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah.
John M HoffmanCenter for Quantitative Cancer Imaging, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Ken R SmithPopulation Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Huntsman Cancer Institute · USUniversity of Utah · US

Funding

UTAH REGIONAL CANCER CENTERP30CA042014 · NCI · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · PI CORNELIA M ULRICH · 1986 to 2026
$72.6M
The Utah Study of Fertility, Longevity and AgingR01AG022095 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · PI SMITH, KEN R · 2003 to 2015
$9.4M
Utah Building Interdisciplinary Resreach Careers in Women's Health Career Development ProgramK12HD085852 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · PI VARNER, MICHAEL W. · 2015 to 2019
$2.3M
NCI NIH HHS P30 CA042014NIA NIH HHS R01 AG022095NICHD NIH HHS K12 HD085852
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveSeveral studies have suggested that cancer is associated with a reduced risk of the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study seeks to improve our understanding of the association between cancer and the development of AD by showing how mortality selection alters this relationship.

methodA retrospective cohort study was carried out examining 92,425 individuals (47,873 women and 44,552 men) from the Utah Population Database with and without a history of any primary cancer identified by the Utah Cancer Registry. All individuals were aged 65-79 years and free of dementia in 1992 and followed for upwards of 18 years (1992-2009) for AD ascertainment, which was identified using diagnostic information from Medicare claims data.

resultsWe replicate previous results suggesting that cancer is associated with reduced risk of subsequent AD under specific statistical model specifications. However, these results should not be interpreted as evidence of an etiological association. We conclude that higher rates of overall mortality among individuals with cancer relative to those without cancer induce the widely reported putative protective association with cancer.

conclusionCareful consideration of model specification and the profound effects of mortality selection in the older adult population is essential when investigating the relationship between aging-related diseases such as cancer and AD. We show that cancer does not provide protection from AD as previously described in the literature. Social scientists seeking to understand social disparities in disease outcomes among older adults may therefore want to strongly consider the role of mortality selection which, if uncorrected, may generate biased associations.

Indexed as

AgedAlzheimer DiseaseCause of DeathCohort StudiesCross-Sectional StudiesDatabases, FactualFemaleHumansMaleModels, StatisticalNeoplasmsProtective FactorsRiskSurvival RateUtahAlzheimer’s diseaseCompeting risksDementiaMortality selection

Identifiers

PMID27101831
PMCPMC5926998
OpenAlexW2337786458

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.