POMPANO BEACH (VINnews)- A 79-year-old Pompano Beach man living with Alzheimer’s disease has had the amyloid plaques cleared from his brain after a year and a half of treatment with a new anti-amyloid medication, according to his doctors.

Scott Milinsky was the second person in Florida to enroll in treatment with Kisunla, a drug developed by Eli Lilly that targets amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. He received 18 infusions over 18 months at Broward Health North’s Memory Disorder & Alzheimer’s Center under the care of Dr. Hazel Wiley.

A final PET scan confirmed the plaques were gone.

“I was shocked,” Milinsky said. “I just sat there and said, ‘Oh my God.’ I didn’t know what to think. I felt so grateful. So, so grateful. I felt so happy. It was overwhelming.”

Milinsky, a grandfather, said the diagnosis brought back painful memories of his father, who died with the same disease.

“Suddenly all of that came back. I’m gonna be like my father,” he recalled. “What a mess. It’s terrifying to die that way, not knowing who you are.”

Kisunla is designed to slow the progression of early symptomatic Alzheimer’s by breaking up and removing amyloid plaques.

“It makes its way to the brain where it essentially breaks up and removes the amyloid plaque,” Wiley said. “By removing the plaque is where we see the benefit of the slowed cognitive and functional decline.”

Wiley cautioned that the treatment is not considered a cure because it does not address tau tangles, another feature of the disease. Still, she called the results significant.

“It’s exciting. It’s emotional at the same time,” she said. “It’s exciting to see some benefit, to see something that is really making a difference, because for many, many years, we haven’t really had much of anything.”

Milinsky described the outcome as a turning point.

“This is a game changer, and there’s going to be more game changers in this field,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”

The Memory Disorder & Alzheimer’s Center at Broward Health North is currently providing the treatment to more than 60 patients.