New research shows that breast cancer survivors may face problems with cognitive abilities several years after therapy, regardless of whether they received chemotherapy plus radiation or radiation only. The study, published early online in Cancer, indicates possible common and treatment-specific ways in which cancer treatments negatively affect cancer survivors’ cognitive skills.
To compare the effects of different cancer treatments on memory and concentration, Paul Jacobsen, PhD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, and his colleagues examined 313 individuals, including:
Neuropsychological assessments were completed by study participants 6 months after finishing treatment and again 36 months later. This is a further extension from the end of treatment compared to most previous, similar studies.
The study confirmed previous research that chemotherapy can cause problems with memory and concentration in breast cancer survivors. Furthermore, results showed the problems could persist for 3 years after treatment ends. In addition, investigators discovered that breast cancer survivors previously treated with radiation (but not chemotherapy) often experienced problems similar to those in breast cancer survivors treated with both chemotherapy and radiation. However, hormonal therapy (such as tamoxifen) was not found to cause cognitive difficulties.
“These findings suggest that the problems some breast cancer survivors have with their mental abilities are not due just to the administration of chemotherapy,” said Dr Jacobsen. “Our findings also provide a more complete picture of the impact of cancer treatment on mental abilities than studies that did not follow patients as long or look at mental abilities in breast cancer survivors who had not been treated with chemotherapy,” he added.
Source: Wiley-Blackwell.
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