How to Use This Blog

By

Idelle Davidson

Welcome. I hope you'll find the articles and stories here valuable. To begin, browse the LABELS index (right column, bottom of page) and check out reader favorites such as:

1) How Chemotherapy Changes the Way You Think

There you'll find my four-part series on how treatment affects your mind, including an introduction and a discussion of issues with executive functioning (planning ahead, multitasking, solving problems, etc.), information processing and word retrieval.

Cedars-Sinai Program Helps Professor Emerge From Haze

Karen Saywitz, PhD

Karen Saywitz, PhD, is a cancer survivor who -- thanks to a rehabilitation program at Cedars-Sinai -- has found strategies to help with post-treatment cognitive issues. Last month, she shared her story at the Cancer Support Community (CSC) - Benjamin Center in Los Angeles. Joining her were fellow panelists: Michael Sieverts, a patient advocate and CSC qi gong instructor; Mi-Yeoung Jo, PsyD, ABPP, a Cedars-Sinai clinical neuropsychologist; Arash Asher, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Survivorship and Rehabilitation Program; and myself. What follows is Karen's talk from that evening. -- ID

Cognitive Effects of CMF May Last 20 Years

In a study reported yesterday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers found that breast cancer patients who received the chemotherapy regimen CMF between 1976 and 1995, scored significantly worse on tests of word recall, information processing speed, and psychomotor speed (coordinating and inserting pegs into a board) than a control group of women who had no history of cancer.

Michael Sieverts' Tips/Tricks to Recover Your Life

My friend, Michael Sieverts, is a 10-year brain cancer survivor, a highly respected patient advocate, and a qi gong instructor for the Cancer Support Community. He is exceptionally well-read on the topics of brain health and cancer-related cognitive decline. ID

Michael Sieverts

By Michael Sieverts

This is a handout for the “Chemobrain” panel I moderated on February 21st at the Cancer Support Community-Benjamin Center. From my introduction that evening:

This is an incredibly important moment in the history of cancer treatment, and we appear to be at an inflection point in terms of understanding the multitude of diseases we refer to collectively as cancer. A good deal of the excitement has to do with scientific

Chemo Brain Program, Feb. 21, W. Los Angeles, 7-9 pm

I'll be on the panel with Arash Asher, MD and Mi-Yeoung Jo, PsyD, ABPP, both from Cedars-Sinai, along with Karen Saywitz, PhD, UCLA professor of Health Sciences, and Michael Sieverts, CSC instructor and moderator. Hope to see you there! Click on the flyer to enlarge.

What’s Another Name for Chemo Brain?

We follow the New York Times style guidelines and spell it as two words: chemo brain. I’ve also seen it as one word: chemobrain, or chemo-brain.  Others call it, “chemonesia,” or “cancer brain fog.”

SOMETIMES ALL YOU CAN DO IS LAUGH

Have you ever been on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland? If so, then you may have an inkling of what goes on inside the head of my wonderful guest blogger, AnneMarie Ciccarella.

AnneMarie Ciccarella

Her story below and the posts she writes on her own blog, are a fast-moving, completely candid, hilarious, stream of consciousness that pull you right into the daily spins and turns of living with chemo brain. And now, HOLD ON TIGHT. Here’s AnneMarie. -- ID

What the Vitamins in Your Blood Tell You About Your Brain

In an article just published in the journal Neurology (online version, 12-28-11), researchers identified three nutrient biomarker patterns (NBP) in blood that are linked to how well we think and reason.

Another Study: Changes in Cerebral White Matter After Chemo

Researchers (Sabine Deprez, MD, et. al.) at a university hospital in Belgium have added to significant evidence that cancer treatment affects attention, concentration, memory and how quickly we process information (psychomotor speed). It also decreases white matter in the frontal, parietal and occipital regions of the brain. Their study appeared this week in the online version of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.