Memory Problems After Cancer? Computer Games May Help

If you've been through cancer treatment and you are struggling with memory, concentration, multitasking and/or word retrieval issues, you may be hoping for that golden portal, that doorway back to your pre-cancer self. 

Neuropsych Testing Can Confirm Chemo Brain, Say UCLA Researchers

Historically, a frustration among researchers has been that neuropsychological testing is not sensitive enough to confirm a patient’s complaints of memory issues after chemotherapy.

Second-Hand Smoke and Memory Loss

In my July 5th column (Is Nicotine Good for Chemo Brain?), I wrote about the nicotine patch. Studies suggest the patch may help with memory loss.

Is Nicotine Good for Chemo Brain?

An interesting study but please don't start smoking...

In a study published in the January 10, 2012 issue of Neurology, lead author Paul Newhouse, MD at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and colleagues, found that nicotine patches may help with mild memory loss.

How Stress Affects Memory

We know from several studies now that some patients show cognitive decline just prior to cancer treatment.

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.

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.

Cancer Itself May Contribute to Brain Fog. Chemo Makes It Worse, Says a Stanford Study

And now we have more evidence that chemo brain is real.

In the latest study published this week in Archives of Neurology, researchers at Stanford University found that women with breast cancer (regardless of whether they had surgery and chemotherapy, or just surgery alone), experienced reduced activity in parts of the brain responsible for working memory, planning and attention.

Chemo Brain May Last 5 Years or Longer After Stem Cell Transplant

Hi Everyone,

There's new research out, this time from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.  Karen Syrjala, PhD, and her team of scientists have found that patients who have undergone chemotherapy prior to receiving stem cell or bone marrow transplants to treat blood cancers, may suffer from some symptoms of chemo brain that are far more severe and long lasting than has generally been reported.

A Misleading Headline About Chemo Brain?

Okay, maybe it's just me but a headline from last week's story in the New York Times about "chemo brain," left me baffled and concerned enough about accuracy that I posted a comment stating as much on the New York Times Well blog.

Chemotherapy Alters Brain Tissue in Breast Cancer Patients, Say Indiana University Researchers

Dear Readers, 

Before you read the press release below, I'd like you to know that the concept of using brain scans to connect the dots between chemotherapy and cognitive dysfunction is not new.  

What is new is that this study was "prospective," meaning "over time."  Whereas in other studies the participants had already been through some amount of chemotherapy or had completed treatment years prior, Dr. Saykin and his team did a "before" and "after." They scanned patients prior to undergoing chemo or radiation and then at two points after going through chemo. So they had some good data comparing the changes in brain tissue.

New Research from MD Anderson: Delayed Onset of "Chemo Brain" Months After End of Treatment*

By

Idelle Davidson

In some disturbing findings reported in the April 28, 2010 issue of the journal Cancer, patients may not experience "chemo brain" during treatment but rather months later.  According to the authors, "This is very concerning as clinical lore has suggested that treatment-related cognitive dysfunction should dissipate over time."

Stanford Imaging Study & Brain Abnormalities in Chemo Patients

In another study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Stanford researchers linked verbal memory impairments with the CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil) regimen of chemotherapy. The number of participants was quite small though, involving just 14 women with metastatic or locally advanced breast cancer who had gone through chemotherapy, and 14 healthy women who served as controls.

Shelli Kesler, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, led the study which was published in the Nov. 1, 2009 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

For more information, click here.

Research Rock Stars at University of Rochester (bet you can't say that five times really, really fast...)

by
Idelle Davidson

I have no connection to the University of Rochester in New York other than I interviewed one of their scientists while researching and writing Your Brain After Chemo.  Perhaps if I did, I wouldn't sound like some gushing M.C. But here goes: Boys and girls, brothers and sisters, give it up for the University of Rochester!!

Are Memories Ever Really Lost?

by
Idelle Davidson

That's what a research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wanted to know.  And so to begin, they genetically engineered some mice to develop Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms.  The mice quickly forgot what had taken them several weeks to learn (one task was navigating a water maze).