Chemo Brain.

I had heard from a friend whose Mother had Breast Cancer a number of years ago as well as my Mother-in-law who has Breast Cancer now but also was treated for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (twice) with Chemo that they had experienced moments of memory loss after treatment.

We casually asked Dr L about this when we first met him and he denied "Chemo brain" existed at all.

Well in Today's edition of The Record I found an article that addresses a study recently done that was written up in the Journal of Oncology Practice regarding Cancer treatments and the possibility that they can lead to "Cognitive Failure".

The Study analyzed data collected on 595 adults with cancerous tumors treated with Radiation, Chemo or both. Before treatment about half of the people reported basic trouble with concentration or memory. The frequency and severity of these problems increased after treatment and lasted for 6 months or longer.

48% reported trouble with concentration before treatment, this number jumped to 67% during treatment and settled at 58% afterwards

53% of those studdied had memory issues before treatment, which jumped to 67% during treatment and settled at 68% after 6 months post treatment.

The numbers in this study seems to support cognitive damage caused by the drugs used in chemotherapy. People treated with radiation however, reported less severe symptoms than the others.

The articles states that the data used was based on the patients' own determination about memory and concentration problems. It's also suggested that the memory issues discovered could also be caused by stress associated with cancer diagnosis and/or general anesthesia recieved during surgery.

I can't say for certain if I have noticed a memory or concentration problem that may or may not have exisited already. We all forget things from time to time so I can only wait and see. I will have to compare notes with my mother-in-law since prior to her recent diganosis was a couple of years post her second bout with NHL and I don't know if she was still having memory problems.

Another friend of mine is 7 years post treatment for a different cancer. I need to touch base with him on this as well. The difference in our treatments and their results might have a lot to do with the drugs and their side effects.

We'll see.