The largest Alzheimer’s research conference of the year begins Sunday in Chicago.
With it comes along a renewed optimism that a cure could be on the horizon...and much of the recent optimism surrounds a drug trial that's currently taking place.
In the trial, a drug seems to have removed a protein called "amyloid," which is the hallmark of the Alzheimer’s condition.
All previous trials attacking amyloid, including some costing hundreds of millions of dollars, have failed in patients.
The new study suggests it’s because they were given too little, too late: about 5.7 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease and that number is expected to climb to nearly 14 million by 2050.