Chemo brain

While we often hear and read the terms chemo brain and chemo fog, especially in the news, in reality, these terms are simply not... 

It is, though, worth pointing out that a substantial body of evidence suggests that chemotherapy, administered with or without anti-hor-monal cancer therapies, is responsible for at least a part of the post-chemo brain syndrome. 

Could tamoxifen or other hormonal therapies make post-chemo brain even worse ... 

My oncologist said there are no data out about chemo brain. He discounted it, saying I m fifty, the whole menopause thing. He patted me on the back, made me feel like I m an idiot. ... 

Are certain people more sensitive than others to post-chemo brain ... 

Can post-chemo brain lead to Alzheimer s disease ... 

Here is another big difference Alzheimer s is an unyielding and progressive disease. Symptoms always worsen over time. The symptoms of post-chemo brain do reverse, improve, or reach a plateau and remain constant. Also, as measured on objective neurological tests, the memory deficits of post-chemo brain are milder overall. 

But I already suffer from some dementia. Will post-chemo brain push me over the edge ... 

Family members don t believe in chemo brain and are intolerant, wrote one patient. 

Problems with memory and concentration are the hallmarks of post-chemo brain. To learn something, we must first register it or encode it. Then we must store it or fix it in time or place and transport it to long-term storage. Finally, at will, we must retrieve or recall those bits of memory from storage. 

With that little bit of interference or distraction (actually referred to as memory interference ), you realize the number has flown right out of your head. This can happen to any of us. But talk to participants in cancer support groups who complain or joke about chemo brain, and you ll find this is a major problem. We know that when you don t focus on something, you are not going to encode it and remember it later on. 

The same thing sometimes happens once you give a name to chemo brain, he says. You say, I m ready to drive back to my car, instead of I m ready to drive back to my house, and you think, yep, yep, there it is there s the chemo brain again. That subtle mistake could very well be due to a change in brain physiology caused by cancer treatment, or it very well could be the kind of thing you did ten years before chemotherapy and never attached any significance to it. 

A key piece of the chemo/brain connection not addressed by those findings from Noble s studies, however, was the relationship of chemotherapy effects on brain cells with impairments in cognition. A second study further connected the dots between chemotherapy and brain fog. Gordon Winocur, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Rot-man Research Institute in Ontario, Canada, and his colleagues at Trent University in Ontario, injected mice with a combination of the anti-cancer drugs methotrexate and 5-FU.3... 

A while back, my husband and I both listened to a Webcast on a Her-2-neu online board. This doctor was talking about chemo brain. It validated everything I was going through, and I sat there and bawled. 

In just the last few years, scientists have realized that scans may be powerful, noninvasive allies in the detection and control of post-chemo brain. But not all scans are alike. One of the differences between PET and MRI the way it was used in the Inagaki study is that MRI measures the brain s structure and volume. But PET is different. It answers questions about how we use our brains. 

PET could be used with a scan prior to chemotherapy to establish a baseline of brain function, and then periodically after chemo. If brain metabolism in certain parts of the brain drops by 3 percent, then 4, and then 5, it may be time to switch therapies before the patient buys a membership to the chemo brain club. ... 

In post-chemo brain there is a much less drastic effect on the tissues involved. Metabolic imaging exams show us that people exposed to chemotherapy have impaired brain function in certain regions compared to others who have not been exposed. But there is no sig-... 

Depression is a separate issue from cognitive impairment, but often when people are depressed they also struggle with memory, attention, and concentration problems. Clearly, the symptoms of post-chemo brain and depression overlap. We know from our studies at UCLA that specific brain changes correlate with the severity of depression, just as specific brain changes correlate with the severity of short-term memory impairment. Depression is rooted in biology. So are memory problems. Both are forms of neurologic dysfunction. 

For some people, post-chemo brain lifts on its own or lessens over time. Others continue to suffer cognitive effects many years after treatment. Either way, here are some strategies to help you deal with it ... 

Prioritize. For most people with chemo brain, multitasking is impossible. Just the idea of having to accomplish two things at once can paralyze you into doing nothing at all. List your tasks in order of priority. Concentrate on one at a time. Tune out everything else. 

Ban scratch paper from your desk. People with post-chemo brain do not need little pieces of paper (especially sticky notes) and scribbles on the backs of envelopes all over their workspace. That will just make you nuts. Follow this cardinal rule Use one solitary notebook for jotting down notes so that everything is in one central place. Even if the items in the notebook are disorganized, at least you know they are in there someplace. (It helps to date the pages as you use them.) This frees your desk—and your mind— from clutter. 

Keep a sense of humor. Although there s nothing funny about post-chemo brain, it s always good to maintain perspective. Everyone has something going on, right ... 

Don t waste your time and mental energy (especially, as both are likely already in alarmingly short supply while enduring post-chemo brain symptoms)—not to mention your money—on supplements of unproven value (exception unless you really want to waste them). 

Similarly, and even more pertinent to people with post-chemo brain, scientists published findings after following a group of women for thirty-four years—an extraordinarily long-term clinical follow-up of the same group of patients. At the end of that time, one out of nine suffered from dementia. The investigators found that those who... 

Cytokines may very well be the most critical component in that cascade of events that leads to chemo brain. If we find that postchemotherapy impairment is conclusively associated with these molecules, then we can aim to develop drugs that disarm or tie up cytokines before they slip into the brain, or that protect brain tissue from their damaging effects. 

---