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Background
Memory loss after chemotherapy is one of the most commonly reported post-treatment
symptoms by patients with cancer. This deterioration in cognitive function, commonly
referred to as chemobrain or chemofog, was largely unacknowledged by the medical community
until in recent years. An exploratory pilot study was undertaken in Tuanku Jaafar
Hospital, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The aim in the study was to assess the effect
of chemotherapy on cognitive function of patients with breast and colon cancers.
Methods
Ten patients with cancer (6 patients with breast cancer patients and 4 with colorectal
cancer) who were receiving adjuvant chemotherapy (anthracycline and/or 5-fluorouracil)
were assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Mini Mental State
Examination (MMSE) before the first cycle of chemotherapy and again after the third
cycle.
Findings
There were mean reductions of 6.1% in MoCA and 5.3% in MMSE; no difference was noted
between patients with breast and those with colorectal cancer.
Interpretation
The reductions in both the tests suggest that chemotherapy does have an impact on
cognitive function, although it must be noted that the sample size was small. Based
on the results of this exploratory pilot study, we aim to do a further larger scale,
longer study to assess cognitive function after chemotherapy.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
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Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc.
