Memory Problems More Common In Cancer Survivors, Regardless Of Chemo: Study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women treated for breast cancer with radiation with or without chemotherapy had more thinking and memory problems a few years after their treatment ended than women who’d never had cancer, in a new study.

Research has suggested some women experience mental haziness, dubbed “chemo brain,” during and soon after chemotherapy treatment. And one recent study found evidence of changes in the activity of certain brain regions in women who’d undergone chemotherapy (see Reuters Health story of November 15, 2011).

But some researchers have questioned whether those problems are due to the specific drug treatments, or possibly to the cancer itself. In the new report, breast cancer survivors showed certain small mental deficits, regardless of whether or not they’d had chemotherapy.