Treatment

No treatments have been proven effective. Most treatment focuses on reducing complications (such as cardiovascular disease) with heart bypass surgery or low-dose aspirin. Children may also benefit from a high-calorie diet.

Growth hormone treatment has been attempted.

A type of anticancer drug, the farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs), has been proposed, but their use has been mostly limited to animal models.[12] A Phase II clinical trial using the FTI Lonafarnib began in May 2007.

Prognosis

There is no known cure. Few people with progeria exceed 13 years of age. At least 90% of patients die from complications of atherosclerosis, such as heart attack or stroke.

Mental development is not affected. The development of symptoms is comparable to aging at a rate six to eight times faster than normal, although certain age-related conditions do not occur. Specifically, patients show no neurodegeneration or cancer predisposition. They do not develop "wear and tear" conditions commonly associated with aging, like cataracts and osteoarthritis.

Epidemiology

A study from the Netherlands has shown an incidence of 1 in 4 million births. Currently, there are between 35 and 45 known cases in the world. Approximately 100 cases have been formally identified in medical history.

Classical Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome is almost never passed on from parent to child. It is usually caused by a new (sporadic) mutation during the early division of the cells in the child. It is usually genetically dominant; therefore, parents who are healthy will normally not pass it on to their children. Affected children rarely live long enough to have children themselves.

There has been one case in which it became evident that a healthy parent can carry the LMNA mutation that causes progeria. In this case, a family from India had five children with progeria. They were the subject of a 2005 Bodyshock documentary entitled "The 80 Year Old Children".