The patients' view on their cognitive impairments, demand for support and willingness to attend 'memory workshop': a survey in two French Cancer Centers

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Impact des traitements en cancérologie sur les fonctions cognitives: Le point de vue des patients, leur attente et leur souhait de participer à des ateliers de rééducation cognitive

Introduction. Cancer and chemotherapy can have adverse effects on cognitive functions and quality of life of patients. We wanted to know the patients' view on these disorders, but also their expectations in terms of assessment and support. Methods and results. A survey was conducted in day care hospital among 551 patients from three cancer centers. Most of the patients were between 40 and 74 years and suffered from breast cancer. Eighty-four percent were treated with chemotherapy. Forty-one percent of patients report memory problems, 26% were affected by specific concentration disorders, and 19% of the attention. On the whole, 52% of patients report at least one of the previous cognitive impairment. Among these patients, 80% evoked that the support of these problems was essential and 70% were willing to participate in "workshops" to deal with these disorders. Conclusion. The cognitive impairment occurrence is a real problem for patients receiving chemotherapy and becomes a priority in the global management of their disease. Studies assessing a specific support of theses symptoms should be encouraged to help patients. © John Libbey Eurotext.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Baseline cognitive functions among elderly patients with localised breast cancer

International audiencePURPOSE: Cognitive deficits (CD) are reported among cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, but may also be observed before treatment. Though elderly patients are expected to be more prone to present age-related CD, poor information is available regarding the impact of cancer and chemotherapy on this population. This study assessed baseline cognitive functions (before adjuvant treatment) in elderly early stage breast cancer (EBC) patients. METHODS: Women >65years-old with newly diagnosed EBC were included in this prospective study. Episodic memory, working memory, executive functions and information processing speed were assessed by neuropsychological tests. Questionnaires were used to assess subjective CD, anxiety, depression, fatigue, quality of life and geriatric profile. Objective CD were defined using International Cognition and Cancer Task Force criteria. A group of elderly women without cancer coupled with published data related to healthy women were used for comparison (respectively to subjective and objective CD). RESULTS: Among the 123 elderly EBC patients (70±4years) included, 41% presented objective CD, which is greater than expected in healthy population norms (binomial test P<.0001). Verbal episodic memory was mainly impaired (21% of patients). No correlation was observed between objective CD and cancer stage or geriatric assessment. Subjective CD only correlated with verbal episodic memory (P=.01). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first large series assessing baseline cognitive functions in elderly EBC patients. More than 40% presented objective CD before any adjuvant therapy, which is higher than what is reported among younger patients. Our results reinforce the hypothesis that age is a risk factor for CD in EBC patients