TRC-PAD Program: In-Clinic Trial-Ready Cohort

TRC-PAD study is short for the "Trial-Ready Cohort for the Prevention of Alzheimer's Dementia". The purpose of the TRC-PAD study is to find many people (also called a "cohort") who are interested in participating in clinical trials aimed at discovering treatments that will reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia. TRC-PAD will help researchers enroll participants into these trials quickly to allow new treatments to be discovered as soon as possible. The TRC-PAD study is for individuals, age 50 and older, who may be at increased risk for memory loss caused by Alzheimer's disease. To join the TRC-PAD study, you first need to be invited to complete an in-person TRC-PAD visit. How can I be invited to an in-person visit for TRC-PAD? Members of the Alzheimer Prevention Trials (APT) Webstudy complete online questionnaires and memory tests. The results of these tests will identify individuals as being eligible for an in-person TRC-PAD visit. If you are not enrolled in the APT Webstudy, you may be invited to an in-person visit for TRC-PAD because other tests or procedures you have had suggest you might be eligible to participate. How might the TRC-PAD Study help researchers learn more about Alzheimer's disease dementia? Alzheimer's disease remains one of the most important medical conditions for which there is no treatment. Among the top ten causes of death, Alzheimer's disease is the only one that cannot be prevented, cured, or even slowed. To change this, researchers are conducting clinical trials to find new treatments. These trials need to study large numbers of individuals and follow participants over long periods of time. The goal of TRC-PAD is to identify individuals for these trials. TRC-PAD will find a group of people who may be "at-risk" for developing Alzheimer's dementia in the future and are appropriate for prevention trials. How does TRC-PAD decide that I may have an increased risk for developing Alzheimer's dementia? A person's risk for developing Alzheimer's dementia is determined by a number of factors including family history, performance on memory tests, and biological tests called biomarkers. Biomarkers are measurements in parts of the body - like blood tests or brain scans - to help assess the presence of, or potential to develop, a disease. If I decide to join TRC-PAD, what happens? Individuals in the TRC-PAD study will complete several assessments to see if they qualify to join the cohort. This will include biomarker testing (via Positron Emission Tomography (PET) brain scan or spinal fluid collection), tests of memory and thinking, questionnaires about daily functioning, mood and behavior, genetic testing and routine blood and urine tests. Individuals who are determined to eligible to enroll in TRC will come back to the clinic every 6 months for brief longitudinal follow-up visits with questionnaires and testing until that individual qualifies for a clinical trial.