Post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment overview
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
In medicine, post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment (also known as chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction or, colloquially, as chemo brain or chemo fog) describes the cognitive impairment that can result from chemotherapy treatment. Approximately 20-30% of people who undergo chemotherapy experience some level of post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment. The phenomenon first came to light because of the large number of breast cancer survivors who complained of changes in memory, fluency, and other cognitive abilities that impeded their ability to function as they had pre-chemotherapy.
Although the causes (and indeed, existence) of post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment have been a subject of debate, recent studies have confirmed that post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment is a real, measurable side-effect of chemotherapy treatment, at least in some patients. A UCLA study published in October 2006 showed that the brains of breast cancer survivors who were treated with chemotherapy have to work harder to perform tasks than survivors whose treatment was surgical. Even more recently, Japanese researchers have demonstrated that a year after treatment, the brains of cancer survivors treated with chemotherapy had physically shrunk; those of people not treated with chemotherapy had not.
Post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment comes as a surprise to many cancer survivors. Often, survivors think their lives will return to normal when the cancer is gone, only to find that the lingering effects of post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment impede their efforts. Working, connecting with loved ones, carrying out day-to-day tasks—all can be very challenging for an impaired brain. Although post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment appears to be temporary, it can be quite long-lived, with some cases lasting 10 years or more.