Assessing Cognitive Dysfunction in Breast Cancer: What Are the Tools?

Cognitive function after chemotherapy in adults with solid tumours

“…Cognitive studies in cancer patients who have received chemotherapy are inconsistent in describing the types of NP dysfunction found, although commonly affected domains are attention/concentration, verbal and visual memory, and processing speed [4,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Similar types of cognitive impairment have been identified in patients with early stage human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection [19,20], Huntington's disease [21], Parkinson's disease [22] and multiple sclerosis [23].…”

“…Several small studies evaluating cognitive impairment after chemotherapy in solid tumour patients were published in the subsequent 25 years [31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Larger studies have been performed in the last 10 years, although there are probably more reviews of cognitive impairment post chemotherapy [4,5,9,10,18,32,36, than original studies, and the available studies are predominantly in breast cancer survivors [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]51,[76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84]. Table 1 summarises the main cognitive studies that have been published in solid tumour patients and the incidence of cognitive impairment found.…”

Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Impairment: The Breast Cancer Experience

“…Several hours of testing may not be practical. In addition, in the context of a clinical trial, the time and expense Left hemisphere V i s u a l m e m o r y R i g h t h e m i s p h e r e Freeman 2002;Jansen et al , 2007 involved in extensive testing may preclude a complete examination from being included in the protocol (Freeman & Broshek). A multidisciplinary workshop held in 2004 yielded the suggestion of a two-stage approach to cognitive assessment, depending on the question that was being asked (Tannock et al, 2004).…”

“…The array of neurocognitive tests that would normally be employed to conduct a full cognitive assessment may range in length from four to seven hours (Freeman & Broshek, 2002). Patient burden should be a consideration in determining the extent of testing that occurs in each session.…”

“…Learning and memory sometimes is divided into visual and verbal memory (Nail, 2006). Abstract reasoning also is periodically assessed as a component of neurocognitive testing (Freeman & Broshek, 2002). Results provide insight into specific areas of brain injury based on individuals' performance on tests designed to elicit objective data related to the specific cognitive domains (see Table 2) Jansen, Miaskowski, Dodd, & Dowling, 2007).…”