breast cancer

Growing research aims at helping cancer patients in distress access most-likely-to-help self-care options, from Mindfulness training to Web-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

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Cred­it: UCIrvine/flickr , CC BY-NC-ND

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Mind­ful­ness in can­cer treat­ment: time to stop and think (The Conversation):

“Breathe deeply and focus on the moment: mind­ful­ness now appears every­where as a tech­nique to improve well-being, includ­ing in health care.

Mind­ful­ness train­ing is often sug­gest­ed for can­cer patients to reduce high lev­els of anx­i­ety and dis­tress asso­ci­at­ed with diag­no­sis, treat­ment and antic­i­pa­tion of pos­si­ble dis­ease recur­rence. But two ques­tions per­sist: does mind­ful­ness work and, if so, for whom? [Read more…] about Grow­ing research aims at help­ing can­cer patients in dis­tress access most-like­ly-to-help self-care options, from Mind­ful­ness train­ing to Web-based cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT)

Finally, growing awareness of chemotherapy-induced cognitive deficits

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fog brainBrain activ­i­ty changes seen after chemo (Reuters):

“For some women with breast can­cer, changes in brain activ­i­ty while mul­ti­task­ing could explain “chemo brain” – reduced men­tal func­tion­ing that many expe­ri­ence after chemother­a­py, Bel­gian researchers say. “Cog­ni­tive com­plaints of peo­ple increase with chemother­a­py and [Read more…] about Final­ly, grow­ing aware­ness of chemother­a­py-induced cog­ni­tive deficits

Measuring and treating Chemo Brain

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‘Chemo Brain’ After Breast Can­cer Backed by Study (US News):

“Breast can­cer patients treat­ed with chemother­a­py are at risk for mild men­tal deficits known col­lec­tive­ly as “chemo brain,” a new study finds. Researchers at the Mof­fitt Can­cer Cen­ter in Tam­pa, Fla., reviewed exist­ing research on brain func­tion (“cog­ni­tive” func­tion­ing) in [Read more…] about Mea­sur­ing and treat­ing Chemo Brain

The State of Personalized Medicine: The Role of Biomarkers

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(Edi­tor’s Note: this is Part 1 of the new 3‑part series writ­ten by Dr. Evian Gor­don draw­ing from his par­tic­i­pa­tion at the Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine World Con­gress on Jan­u­ary, 23, 2012 at Stan­ford University.)

On aver­age, the med­ica­tions pre­scribed for brain-relat­ed con­di­tions ben­e­fit approx­i­mate­ly 50% of patients. But which 50%?

Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine seeks to move away from the cur­rent “1 size fits all, tri­al and error” approach that has been nec­es­sary because of a lack of evi­dence. Instead, it focus­es on [Read more…] about The State of Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine: The Role of Biomarkers

Research on ‘Chemo Brain’: MRI Shows Brain Changes After Chemotherapy

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‘Chemo Brain’: MRI Shows Brain Changes After Chemother­a­py (Med­scape):

- “Breast can­cer sur­vivors who have been treat­ed with chemother­a­py show sig­nif­i­cant changes in brain activ­i­ty, mea­sured by func­tion­al mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (fMRI), accord­ing to a study pub­lished in the Novem­ber issue of the Archives of Neu­rol­o­gy.”

- “The find­ing val­i­dates patients’ claims of reduced cog­ni­tive func­tion after receiv­ing chemother­a­py, a phe­nom­e­non referred to as “chemo brain,” said lead author Shel­li R. Kesler, PhD, from Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine in California.”

Link to study Pre­frontal Cor­tex and Exec­u­tive Func­tion Impair­ments in Pri­ma­ry Breast Can­cer (Archives of Neu­rol­o­gy): [Read more…] about Research on ‘Chemo Brain’: MRI Shows Brain Changes After Chemotherapy