Why computerized neuropsychological tests will become routine — chemo brain example

Good arti­cle today in the NYT on “chemo brain” — some typ­i­cal short-term and long-term cog­ni­tive con­se­quences of chemotherapy.

The Fog That Fol­lows Chemother­a­py (New York Times)

This quote is crit­i­cal — for chemo brain and also for a vari­ety of clin­i­cal con­di­tions that present asso­ci­at­ed cog­ni­tive impair­ments: “Con­trol­ling for brain func­tion before can­cer treat­ment begins can help deter­mine cause and effect. In one study, can­cer patients took a bat­tery of neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal tests before start­ing chemother­a­py, three weeks after com­plet­ing treat­ment, and again one year lat­er. Although a third of the patients had signs of cog­ni­tive impair­ment before ther­a­py began, the num­ber jumped to 61 per­cent after treat­ment, and half remained impaired a year later.”

As we have dis­cussed before, we believe that inex­pen­sive com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive assess­ments will start to become wide­ly avail­able in only a few years, to help set up indi­vid­u­al­ized cog­ni­tive base­lines and inform clin­i­cal diag­noses and treat­ments. For more, you can read Com­put­er­ized Cog­ni­tive Assess­ments: oppor­tu­ni­ties and concerns