Experience with Donanemab and Lecanemab

Posted by spoolly @spoolly, Aug 11, 2025

My wife has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and her Mayo neurologist recommended treatment with either Donanemab or Lecanemab. Does anyone have any experience with either of these drugs? It seems like we have a million questions.
How do you choose between the two?
The infusion time with either one is relatively short, but sounds like your actual time is much longer. Are you generally able to get by with one day of medical each cycle?
How bad are the side effects? Are you potentially losing 18 months of relatively good time during the disease progression while you go through treatment?
There are numerous articles which question whether the benefits from the clinical trial will actually follow in actual practice. What kind of actual experience have people experienced?
I am not sure why our family and myself seem to be questioning this treatment. My wife is a three time ovarian cancer survivor. She has obviously been through quite a great deal from a medical standpoint. The medical community and specifically Mayo has saved her. If one of these treatments will help there is no question we will proceed. I am sure part of our hesitation is in our situation the treatment cannot be done at Mayo.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Caregivers: Dementia Support Group.

Profile picture for stephanie1212 @stephanie1212

@llthomson My husband is 83. He tried to get out of bed and barely made it. He couldn't get down the stairs. It was just a total weakness that lasted a few hours. He was ok the following day. This occurred after treatment 3 and 6. He has been fine after that but it is frightening because you don't know if it is causing permanent damage. But overall he is holding his own now. I am in a support group with 10 caregivers and it seems that he is not declining as quickly as the others. And the level of plaque decreased from 75 to -12!

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@stephanie1212
The reduction in plaque is having a positive effect on his actions??
Also not sure if my husband with 2 - APOE4 genes will be improved from treatment?

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