chemo-fog

Chemo Brain and Brain Training

by

Chemo brain or chemo fog refers to the cog­ni­tive changes that can occur dur­ing and after chemother­a­py. These changes may trans­late into mem­o­ry laps­es, motor prob­lems, dif­fi­cul­ty find­ing words and prob­lems man­ag­ing mul­ti­ple tasks and learn­ing new things. Although the caus­es of the phe­nom­e­non are still under debate, it is nonethe­less a real prob­lem, affect­ing 20% to 30% of breast can­cer patients who under­go chemother­a­py. This New York Time arti­cle reports that chemo brain effects may be longer last­ing than orig­i­nal­ly thought.

“Chemo brain,” the fog­gy think­ing and for­get­ful­ness that can­cer patients often com­plain about after treat­ment, may last for five years or more for a siz­able per­cent­age of patients, new research shows.

The study, pub­lished in The Jour­nal of Clin­i­cal Oncol­o­gy, is a vin­di­ca­tion of sorts for many can­cer patients, whose com­plaints about think­ing and mem­o­ry prob­lems are often dis­missed by doc­tors who lay blame for the symp­toms on nor­mal aging or the fatigue of illness.

What is offered to these patients to recov­er their brain func­tions faster? [Read more…] about Chemo Brain and Brain Training

Why computerized neuropsychological tests will become routine — chemo brain example

by

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

Chemo Brain: cognitive effects of chemotherapy

by

Good NYT arti­cle today on how Chemother­a­py Fog Is No Longer Ignored as Illu­sion. Quotes:

  • “Vir­tu­al­ly all can­cer sur­vivors who have had tox­ic treat­ments like chemother­a­py expe­ri­ence short-term mem­o­ry loss and dif­fi­cul­ty con­cen­trat­ing dur­ing and short­ly after­ward, experts say. But a vast major­i­ty improve. About 15 per­cent, or rough­ly 360,000 of the nation’s 2.4 mil­lion female breast can­cer sur­vivors, the group that has dom­i­nat­ed research on cog­ni­tive side effects, remain dis­tract­ed years lat­er, accord­ing to some experts. And nobody knows what dis­tin­guish­es this 15 percent.”
  • “The cen­tral puz­zle of chemo brain is [Read more…] about Chemo Brain: cog­ni­tive effects of chemotherapy