What do those progression numbers mean in terms of outlook? For example, if someone is treated before showing symptoms (as they know they inherit it) is the progression slowing enough to give them a normal life expectancy and quality of life?
>It means the decline you would normally expect in one year would take four years after treatment, giving patients decades of "good quality life", Prof Sarah Tabrizi told BBC News.
>The first symptoms of Huntington's disease tend to appear in your 30s or 40s and is normally fatal within two decades – opening the possibility that earlier treatment could prevent symptoms from ever emerging.
I don’t think this quite answers the curiosity of whether starting treatment e.g. at birth would virtually eliminate morbidity, or whether it only slows the decline once it has started.
Consider that the disease typically manifests in your 30s — does this mean it would begin 4x later (and thus basically never manifest), or that your 15 year progressive decline from ~35-50 would take 4x longer (giving you a normal lifespan, albeit perhaps with some limitations in your later years)?
