New CTE Study of Former NFL Players Draws a San Antonio Reading: UT Health San Antonio Is a Site for the Search for Early Signs
A Boston University study published in JAMA Network Open estimated 74.5 percent of former NFL players had some form of CTE after adjusting for brain-donor bias - a figure experts, including UT Health San Antonio's Dr. Jeremy Tanner, say must be read carefully, while a study with a site at UT Health San Antonio hunts for signs that can be detected during life.
A new Boston University study of brains donated by 387 former NFL players who died between 2008 and 2023 found that 94 percent of the donors had some form of CTE, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head that can only be definitively diagnosed after death. Because players with cognitive symptoms were far more likely to donate their brains, the researchers adjusted for that bias and estimated that 74.5 percent of former players had some form of the condition. The research is published in JAMA Network Open.
The experts reacting to the study urged care in reading it. CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook cautioned that the figure may be an overestimate, noting the study counted signs of CTE in the brain, not players who showed symptoms. Dr. Kristen Dams-O'Connor of Mount Sinai said the results cannot and should not be read as representative of current living athletes, many of the studied players having ended their careers long ago, before recent NFL rule changes and more protective equipment such as Guardian Caps.
San Antonio's own reading came from Dr. Jeremy Tanner, an assistant professor of neurology at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurological Diseases at the UT San Antonio Health Science Center. Tanner called the study helpful for the bigger picture and said that even after accounting for selection bias, a minimum of 20 to 25 percent is, in his words, eye-opening, and shows the need to advance the research.
The next question is detection during life. Researchers including Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Jay Alberts pointed to early-warning measures such as instrumental activities of daily living - skills like driving or balancing a checkbook - and to biomarker research. Ongoing studies, including one that has a study site at UT Health San Antonio, follow current and former players through their lives looking for abnormal changes, work Tanner said could benefit far more people than former NFL players alone. The NFL told CBS News it continuously strives to make football safer, including strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts.
