Possible Treatment for the Negative Effects of Chemotherapy on the Brain
Along with the obvious benefit of chemotherapy — surviving cancer — comes a secondary problem that is often not well understood by friends, family, or even cancer patients themselves. Referred to simply as ‘chemobrain’, its symptoms include memory problems, confusion, and difficulty concentrating. The problem occurs in as many as 99 percent of breast and ovarian cancer patients, and until now, little was known about how to treat it.
Along with the obvious benefit of chemotherapy — surviving cancer — comes a secondary problem that is often not well understood by friends, family, or even cancer patients themselves. Referred to simply as ‘chemobrain’, its symptoms include memory problems, confusion, and difficulty concentrating. This side effect occurs in as many as 99 percent of breast and ovarian cancer patients, and until now, little was known about how to treat it.
While no one doubts the benefits of chemotherapy, the side effect called ‘chemobrain’ can cause a lack of mental focus, inability to organize daily activities, confusion, memory loss and decreased mental clarity. It has been estimated that chemobrain occurs in virtually all breast and ovarian cancer patients receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments, and nearly two-thirds of these patients continue to experience such symptoms long after completing their cancer treatment.
Now, researchers led by the University of Cincinnati’s (UC) Elyse Lower, MD, report a possible new treatment for the problem using the drug dexmethyphenidate (d-MPH):
Dr. Lower, professor of hematology/oncology at UC College of Medicine, recently described the encouraging results of a 14-month, multi-center, Phase 2 study of d-MPH to the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
The 154 cancer survivors at 21 medical centers showed significant reduction in fatigue and improvement in memory when treated with dosages of 10 mg to 50 mg of d-MPH per day, Dr. Lower said, when compared with a control group receiving a placebo.
All the patients, who had a median age of 53 years, had completed at least four cycles of chemotherapy at least two months before the study began. Ninety percent of them were female (76 percent with breast cancer and 14 percent with ovarian cancer), 79 percent were white and 9 percent were African-American.
‘The study showed that up to 50 mg a day of d-MPH is safe and effective for relieving chemobrain in adult cancer patients,’ said Dr. Lower, ‘and it should be considered as a treatment.’
Cancer patients are often aware of possible side effects of chemotherapy or radiation therapy, such as hair loss or fatigue, but awareness of continuing mental side effects tends to be much lower both in patients and their friends and families. This lack of awareness about possible enduring side effects on the mental well-being of cancer patients only adds to the difficulties faced by cancer survivors as they recover. This new medical treatment offers some hope of relieving those symptoms directly.
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This article was last reviewed by on Wednesday, 8th June 2005. You can leave a response below.
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8th September 2007
I finished chemotherapy for Breast Cancer last august and have been on tamoxifen since - I am reaching the stage where I feel I can’t remember ANYTHING and although when people tell me things (at work for example) they make sense, and I go off to carry out the task related to the conversation, I get to my desk and I become a useless imbecile and I cannot do what I know has been asked of me; moreover, I forget some of the key tasks that have been requested …AAARGHHH it is So frustrating for a woman who has multi tasked since the day she was born - what do I do:??? Do I have altzheimers????