Chemo brain may last 5 years or more

[Sheila]

New York Times
By Tara Parker-Pope
4 May 11

“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 findings, based on a study of 92 cancer patients at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, suggest that the cognitive losses that seem to follow many cancer treatments are far more pronounced and longer-lasting than commonly believed.

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.

“It’s clearly established now that chemo brain does exist and can continue long-term,” said Karen L. Syrjala, co-director of the Survivorship Program at Fred Hutchinson and the study’s lead author. “The real issue here is that recovery from cancer treatment is not a one-year process but a two- to five-year process. People need to understand the extent to which the cells in their bodies have really been compromised by not only the cancer, but also the treatment.”

….

Comparing the test results of the cancer patients with those of the matched controls, the researchers found that among cancer survivors, most of the cognitive problems are largely temporary but may persist for five years or longer. Patient recovery generally followed a bell curve, with some showing improvement after a year, while others took two, three or more years to recover.

Dr. Syrjala said the good news is that information processing, multitasking and executive function skills all seemed to recover within five years.

“One of the things people complain a lot about during treatment is word finding, where you know the word, it’s a tip-of-the-tongue experience, but they can’t come up with it,” said Dr. Syrjala. “We hear that so frequently during treatment. The happy news in this data is that that piece of cognitive function does recover, but it usually takes longer than a year.”

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http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0...years-or-more/

[Luc]

Thanks for it. Incredible article. By the way of extrapolating this data you can easily understand why in case of SSRIs the phrase "mind-changing substances" may take on a new and even more compelling meaning.