I have definitely experienced the effects described in this article, and for
me it is probably what I mourn the most. ("A mind is a terrible thing to
lose?") I guess we have no choice when fighting for our lives, but it does
suggest to me that greater effort should be made to separate out those who
really need chemo from those who probably don't. Love, Joicy
Study finds lingering memory problems after chemotherapy
[03/28/2000; Cable News Network]
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Ordinary doses of chemotherapy sometimes appear
to permanently dull survivors' intellectual powers, leaving them
with poor memories, muddy thinking and inability to do math in
their heads, new research suggests.
Cancer patients often complain of "chemobrain," or woolly-headedness
during treatment. While they are typically reassured this will
go away, little attempt has been made until now to see if these
subtle problems linger years later.
The new study, conducted at Dartmouth Medical School, found that
people who get standard chemotherapy appear to be about twice
as likely as other cancer patients to score poorly on various
intelligence tests an average of 10 years after their treatment.
Doctors say the findings suggest that aggressive treatment with
chemotherapy may be unwise in some people with early-stage cancer
unless the drugs can substantially improve chances of survival.
Tim A. Ahles, a psychologist, presented the results Tuesday at
a meeting in Tampa of the American Cancer Society. He said that
while his is one of the first formal studies of the problem,
the results are unlikely to surprise many cancer patients.
Ahles said that when he spoke recently about the findings at a
meeting of cancer survivors, he worried his discouraging news
would upset the audience. Instead, they seemed relieved that
scientists were finally taking seriously a complaint they had
made for years.
He said that many years after treatment, some cancer survivors
say they still have trouble remembering and concentrating. Some
say they need a calculator for math problems they once could
have solved in their heads. Others have to read a page twice
to absorb what's being said.
"In talking to someone, you'd never notice this," Ahles said.
"But it is very relevant to them."
Ahles noted that lots of things during chemotherapy can make people
feel unfocused. Often they are anemic, sick from the chemotherapy
and sleepy from anti-nausea medicines. But intellectual ability
gradually comes back as they recover.
"The question is whether it returns to pretreatment levels," he
said. "The inference from our data is that for a subgroup of
patients, it does not."
The full article can be found at:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/cancer/03/28/cancer.memory.ap/index.html
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