Takaisin

Does donanemab or lecanemab alleviate cognitive impairment and improve function in patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s disease?

Näytönastekatsaukset
Miia Aro
8.4.2026

Level of evidence: B

In patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s disease, treatment with donanemab or lecanemab probably results in a small reduction in cognitive decline and improvement in function, compared with placebo over 18–19 months (The mean differences versus placebo were −1.41 points for ADAS-Cog-13 and –0.59 points for CDR-SB in donanemab and −1.8 points for ADAS-Cog-14 and -0,43 for CDR-SB in lecanemab.)

However, the observed effects do not reach the minimal clinically important difference of 3.5 to 4 points for ADAS-Cog and 1 to 2 points in CDR-SB and therefore might not be clinically meaningful for patients or caregivers, but the outcomes may not be best for evaluating progression of the disease. The certainty of evidence was downgraded due to imprecision; there was a high number of incomplete outcome data, and the confidence intervals were wide.

Table 1. Description of the included studies
Reference Study type Population Intervention and comparison Outcomes Risk of bias [Table «Additional comments for included studies...»2. Additional comments]
SR=systematic review; MA=meta-analysis; MCI= mild cognitive impairment; ADAS-Cog= Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive Subscale-11 to 14 items; CDR-SB=Clinical Dementia Rating–Sum Boxes scale
«Ebell MH, Barry HC, Baduni K, ym. Clinically Impor...»1 SR/MA Adults with MCI or mild Alzheimer disease. Mean age ~70–75 years, mixed sex. Recruited from outpatient memory clinics in North America, Europe, and Asia. Intervention: Anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies (donanemab or lecanemab) administered intravenously every 2 or 4 weeks. Comparison: Placebo. Cognitive outcomes: 1.ADAS-Cog (11–14 item versions).
2.CDR-SB
Low
Table 2. Additional comments for included studies
Reference Comments
«Ebell MH, Barry HC, Baduni K, ym. Clinically Impor...»1 Trials enrolled adults with cognitive impairment, Alzheimer disease of any severity, or high risk for Alzheimer disease, and had to report at least 1 patient-oriented benefit or harm after a minimum of 1 year. There were no limits by year or language. Trials reporting the results of only a single infusion and phase 1 trials were excluded, as well as trials or trial arms using doses lower than those used in phase 3 trials or ultimately approved by the FDA.

Results

Table 3. Cognitive function measured with ADAS-cog-13 for donanemab and ADAS-cog-14 for lecanemab
Reference Number of studies and number of patients (I/C) Follow-up time Mean (SD) I Mean (SD) C Mean difference (95% CI);
SMD (95%CI)
Level of evidence: moderate
The quality of evidence is downgraded due to inconsistency and imprecision.
I=intervention; SD=Standard deviation; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval; SMD=Standardized mean difference.
«Ebell MH, Barry HC, Baduni K, ym. Clinically Impor...»1 (Mintun 2021; Sims 2023) Donanemab:
2 RCTs; total n=1993 (991/1002)
18–19 months 2.9 (7.54) and 5.46 (8.20) 4.77 (7.41) and 6.79 (7.99) −1.41 points (−2.11 to −0.70);
–0.18 (–0.26 to –0.09)
«Ebell MH, Barry HC, Baduni K, ym. Clinically Impor...»1 (Swanson 2021; Van Dyck 2023) Lecanemab:
2 RCTs; total n=2621 (1264/1357)
18 months 2.59 (10.00) and 4.14 (17.59) 4.90 (9.50) and 5.58 (17.75) −1.8 points (−3.1 to −0.52);
–0.11 (–0.19 to –0.02)
Table 4. Clinical Dementia Rating–Sum Boxes scale (CDR-SB) for a combined cognitive and functional scale.
Reference Number of studies and number of patients (I/C) Follow-up time Mean (SD) I Mean (SD) C Mean difference (95% CI)
Level of evidence: moderate
The quality of evidence is downgraded due to imprecision
I= intervention; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval
«Ebell MH, Barry HC, Baduni K, ym. Clinically Impor...»1 (Mintun 2021; Sims 2023) Donanemab:
2 RCTs; total n=1993 (991/1002)
18–19 months 1.22 (2.01) and 1.66 (2.61) 1.58 (2.00) and 2.33 (2.56) −0.59 points ( −0.86 to −0.33
«Ebell MH, Barry HC, Baduni K, ym. Clinically Impor...»1 Swanson 2021; Van Dyck 2023) Lecanebab:
2 RCTs; total n=2621 (1264/1357)
18 months 1.10 (2.63) and 1.21 (4.69) 1.50 (2.47) and 1.66 (5.47) −0.43 (−0.78 to −0.07)

References

  1. Ebell MH, Barry HC, Baduni K, ym. Clinically Important Benefits and Harms of Monoclonal Antibodies Targeting Amyloid for the Treatment of Alzheimer Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Ann Fam Med 2024;22(1):50-62 «PMID: 38253509»PubMed