Rodríguez Martín, B.; Fernández Rodríguez, E.J.; Rihuete Galve, M.I.; Cruz Hernández, J.J. Study of Chemotherapy-Induced Cognitive Impairment in Women with Breast Cancer. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2020, 17, 8896.
Rodríguez Martín, B.; Fernández Rodríguez, E.J.; Rihuete Galve, M.I.; Cruz Hernández, J.J. Study of Chemotherapy-Induced Cognitive Impairment in Women with Breast Cancer. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8896.
Rodríguez Martín, B.; Fernández Rodríguez, E.J.; Rihuete Galve, M.I.; Cruz Hernández, J.J. Study of Chemotherapy-Induced Cognitive Impairment in Women with Breast Cancer. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2020, 17, 8896.
Rodríguez Martín, B.; Fernández Rodríguez, E.J.; Rihuete Galve, M.I.; Cruz Hernández, J.J. Study of Chemotherapy-Induced Cognitive Impairment in Women with Breast Cancer. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8896.
Abstract
Background: Oncology patients experience a large number of symptoms and, those referring to cognitive performance has an ever-increasing importance in clinical practice due to the increase in survival rates and interest in the patient's quality of life. The studies reviewed show that chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment may occur in 15 and 50% of oncology patients. The main objective of this research was to study the impact of chemotherapy on the cognitive function of patients with locoregional breast cancer.Method: Analytical, prospective, longitudinal study using three measures, unifactorial intrasubject design, non-probability and random selection sampling. The sample comprised women newly diagnosed with locoregional breast cancer in stages I, II, IIIA who received chemotherapy at the University Hospital of Salamanca (Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca) randomly selected for three years. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, HAD); quality of life (QLQ-BR23 scale) and the following cognitive variables were assessed: processing speed, attention, memory and executive functions (subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and the Trail Making Test). Results: The final sample size included 151 participants; 23 were excluded. A decline in cognitive performance was observed in patients which was not completely recovered two months after chemotherapy had been completed. Also, worse cognitive performance was observed in patients with anxious or depressive symptoms. There is a negative impact on the quality of life. Conclusion: Chemotherapy has an impact on the cognitive performance of oncology patients in most of the cognitive domains studied.
Keywords
chemotherapy; cognitive impairment; cancer
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
