[gentle music]

Alzheimer's runs in our family.

My grandfather and great-grandfather both passed away

from complications with Alzheimer's.

And now my mom, Paula Tanner, has Alzheimer's.

[gentle music]

Paula, why don't you sit over here

and I'm gonna make you some breakfast.

It stops, there's good days, there's bad days,

there's better days, there's worse days.

Yup.

You just gotta go with the hand you're dealt, okay.

[Paula] Thank you, that's perfect.

My stepfather, Tom, is my mom's primary caregiver.

He gets her up in the morning,

he gets her coffee, he makes her breakfast.

I think the first symptom was her repeating herself

and not remembering things more frequently.

We initially took her to her primary care physician

and he did a couple of cognitive tests and decided

that she doesn't have Alzheimer's, she's just aging.

His test was very subjective.

Despite what her primary care physician said,

we wanted to seek out someone

that would give us a more definitive answer.

My sister found Dr. Sabbagh.

The fight against Alzheimer's is a very important thing

for families, and the biggest challenge that

Alzheimer's patients face is getting the correct diagnosis.

Historically, patient would come in, do a quick exam,

say, Okay, you don't have thyroid problems,

B12 problems, you must have Alzheimer's, by default.

Well, turns out that that approach, what we call a diagnosis

of exclusion, is only accurate three out of four times.

So what's happening now is

that we are seeing the advent of new technologies

and diagnostic tests available, PET scans, spinal tap,

and in the very near future blood tests.

We believe that biomarkers are the key.

A biomarker is a measure of biological activity

in the body, blood pressure, cholesterol, your weight,

those are all biomarkers.

One of the exciting markers in development

in this space is something called P-tau 181.

This is a marker that allows you to sort healthy individuals

from those with Alzheimer's.

It is measured in something called a picogram

which is a trillionth of a gram

and so we need more sensitive instrumentation.

The idea that you could measure in your blood

what's happening in your brain,

20 years ago we'd have said it's impossible.

So you take a blood test and if it's abnormal

you gotta go looking for more disease

and I think that's where the field is going

At this point in time, Labcorp is an absolute leader.

We have focused our attention

to launching biomarkers in neurology,

and our pursuit with Alzheimer's is a daily endeavor

to help identify new markers in this space

and to give physicians a tool to treat their patients

and Pharma a tool to develop better drugs.

[gentle music]

Genetics plays a big role in Alzheimer's disease.

A first-degree relative, mother, sister, brother,

father doubles or triples your lifetime risk

of developing Alzheimer's Disease.

So you have the stress of caregiving

of the loved one with Alzheimer's

and the anxiety of knowing that you could be next.

[Jamie] As we get a little bit older

you maybe forget to write something down at work

and then someone reminds you, your first initial thought is,

Oh, my God, I have Alzheimer's.

I believe Alzheimer's Disease

is at a transformative moment.

We are now being able to identify people at risk

even when they don't have symptoms of memory loss.

And when they have the biomarkers present

that means we're trying to intervene

before the onset of symptoms

and that's been very, very exciting.

We believe very strongly that an early diagnosis

can change a patient's trajectory.

Labcorp is on a mission to improve the lives

of Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers.

We really try to live with that hope

and that faith that the issues that we faced

with our grandfather and our mother

are not gonna be the same issues that we face.

And I think that it's important to believe

that there's a different path in the future.

[gentle music]