chemo brain

[anjou]

Memory Problems Linked to Cancer Treatment
By MARY DUENWALD


sychologists are beginning to verify what many breast cancer survivors have long suspected: chemotherapy can, in some cases, cause problems with memory and concentration.

Various studies have found that 20 percent to 30 percent of women who undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer, as well as other patients who receive similar treatment for lymphoma, score lower than average on tests of mental function for as long as 10 years after their chemotherapy.

"There's enough data now to at least know it's a real effect," said Dr. Ian F. Tannock, a psychiatrist who has led studies of the phenomenon at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.

Patients report memory problems much like those linked to aging. They cannot remember where they put their keys or recall lists of things they had planned to accomplish. Some report being easily distracted or losing the ability to calculate in their heads.

Dr. Tim A. Ahles, a psychologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., said, "Part of the reason that this whole issue is coming more to the fore now is that we're seeing increasing numbers of long-term cancer survivors who are wanting to get back to their routines, so increasing numbers of people are having problems."

Breast cancer survivors seem to report the problem more than people with other cancers, doctors say, but they suspect this may be because the breast cancer patients are such a large, well-organized group with many channels of communication.

The research has also centered on breast cancer because of its high survival rate, though the effect probably occurs in people with other cancers, because they receive the same kinds of chemotherapy, the researchers said.

The studies suggest that the risk of mental impairment ? what some patients call "chemo brain" or, in Canada, "chemo fog" ? rises with the intensity of the chemotherapy.

In one of the first studies of the side effect, researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam found that women who received high-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer were eight and a half times as likely to show signs of mental impairment as breast cancer survivors who had been treated with radiation or surgery but no chemotherapy.

Thirty-two percent of those who had had high-dose chemotherapy scored low on tests of mental ability. About 17 percent of women who had had standard-dose chemotherapy showed signs of impairment.

Although it is possible that some impairment could be due to normal aging, Dr. Frits van Dam, a psychologist who led the Dutch research team, said that the patients in his study had reported that they had not experienced any mental capacity problems before their cancer treatments. Exactly how chemotherapy may impair the mind is not known. In the case of breast cancer survivors, Dr. van Dam said, it is not even clear that chemotherapy is entirely to blame.

"It may also be caused by hormonal changes," Dr. van Dam said. "When you have premenopausal women in high-dose chemotherapy, they suddenly become menopausal. Maybe when they are rushed into menopause in this way, it has an effect."

The Dutch researchers are looking to see if chemotherapy somehow alters the electrical activity in the brain. The scientists suspect that some forms of chemotherapy may be more damaging than others.

Now, researchers are doing more extensive psychological studies, measuring memory and concentration skills of patients before and after chemotherapy. Because the research so far has looked only at patients after treatment, it has been impossible to gauge how much mental agility they may have lost.

Perhaps, Dr. van Dam said, it will be possible to develop chemotherapy that minimizes or prevents the mental problems. "If you cannot prevent the problems," he said, "you have to think about rehabilitation of these patients."

[Gena]

Thanks for the info and validation, Anjou. Medical research shows that agressive chemo lowers the IQ's of children so it certainly doesn't take a great leap to believe it has the potential to have some detrimental effect on adult brain cells.

[salli]

Boy I hope they didn't just realize this now! There is definitely some impairment with high dose chemos. It seems odd to me that there would be any head scratching on this one.

Since the chemo attacks fast growing cells (not just cancer) it would seem likely that brain cells plus many other interconnected functions are being damaged or flawed.

[JoAnne]

I think a lot of us have conveyed our problems with the "Chemo Brain". I know I had it. One question, tho, can I still use it as an excuse?

[Rochelle]

One thing I can't figure out is that Walter had the chemo and I seem to have the chemo brain.

[belcanto]

There's more information here:
www.cancersymptoms.org/symptoms/cognitive_dysfunction/

[Sandy-02]

I still have it

[tex]

Ahhhh Validation is sweet isn't it? And they thought we were all just nuts!!

JoAnne, I don't see why you can't continue to use chemo brain as an excuse. I'm still blaming stuff on Prednisone 6 mos after the fact!

I only had 3 rounds and I swear I still feel the affects a lot of days. I'm not as mentally "there" as I used to be. I can't multitask as before and I have a lot of trouble with the little details that used to come without a thought. As Garth Brooks would say "I'm much too young to feel this dam old."

Tex

[TeamMartha]

Excellent post, Anjou (as always!).

I shared this info with a co-worker who had chemo (two of the four CHOP drugs) for breast cancer as well as my wife.

I think they both had the same "so it's NOT just me..." reaction.

Mark Hennessey

[vortmax]

Uh, chemo brain from what and why are you people in the weather chat room?