Right now, the only way to determine if someone has CTE is by taking a sample of a brain and examining it under a microscope. Recent deaths such as Dave Duerson of the Chicago Bears and Rick Martin of the NHL have led to the larger study.
Boston University will study and scan the brains of 100 retired NFL players. They will also do genetic testing, interviewing and do a thorough examination over three years of all study participants. For a comparison group, the scientists will use athletes in non-contact sports such as runners, swimmers, tennis players and basketball stars.
All of the subjects will be between 40 and 69 years old. The 100 NFL players have all showed signs of increasing dementia that could be a sign of CTE. The athletes from other sports are also elite in their fields and were active in their sports for many years.
Before studying these 100 brains, Boston University only had about 70 to rely on and they were all from players who had passed away. This new endeavor will be the largest and most comprehensive of its kind.
The NFL players to be studied all played on defense, the side of the ball that required the most blows to the head. The NFL is helping Boston University contact former players. Another study being conducted involves interviewing former players to keep up on their condition from all sports.
The aim of the study is to try to better understand CTE and eventually will lead to a possible treatment for the disease. The brain slowly degenerates over many years due to repeated blows to the head. The condition is common in boxing, football and hockey.
Concussions and blows to the head have made news in the NFL this year. Former players filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles alleging the league hid the dangers of concussions and hid it from players for decades. The NFL commissioned its own study in the 1990s which concluded there was no danger. It wasn't until June 2010 that the NFL admitted concussions and dementia are a regular part of the NFL experience.
The NFL and the players' union are helping the center to contact former players. Stern said the initial response had been "extremely positive."
"There's a sense that former players want to be able to do something to not only potentially help themselves but also to help get the research moving quickly to help others in the future," he said.
The athletes in the comparison group will include retired swimmers and tennis players among others, recruited through college alumni associations and sports leagues.
"You'd be surprised at how many sports we exclude because we don't know for sure there's not a problem," Stern said, such as distance running, with the jolting of the head at every step.
Two more subjects are lined up for December, then the pace will pick up in January. The athletes are promised confidentiality.
The researchers hope genetic testing and other analyses help them eventually determine why some athletes who receive repeated blows to the head develop CTE and others don't. Dr. Robert Cantu and Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard football player and professional wrestler, are the other co-directors of the center.
Stern, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at BU's medical school, also studies Alzheimer's. The recent progress made in diagnosing that disease during life encouraged him that the same could happen with CTE.
The grant, received in August, is also supported by the National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. There are 20 co-investigators, including researchers at Harvard, Penn and Columbia. The center is still seeking additional funding to complete the study.
The center is also conducting a study called LEGEND of more than 1,000 athletes from a variety of sports using yearly telephone interviews, online questionnaires and a saliva sample for genetic testing to try to learn more about the development of CTE.
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