DAILY FATIGUE AND COGNITION AMONG BREAST CANCER SURVIVORS

Abstract

AbstractAccording to the World Health Organization over the next 20 years new cases of cancer will increase by 70%. Because of increased cancer risk with age and improved survival rates, individuals over age 65 make up 2/3 of cancer survivors. Memory and attention difficulties (e.g., ‘chemobrain’) and fatigue are common quality of life concerns for survivors but little is known regarding prevalence of these problems in daily life. Breast cancer survivors (n=38, age: 40–64), 6–36 months post-chemotherapy, were recruited from a cancer center in the United States. Neuropsychological tests were administered during a lab visit. Participants carried study smartphones for 14 days; five times daily the phones prompted them to complete brief surveys and to play brain games. Each night, participants reported on that day’s memory problems. Survivors completed 91% of smartphone cognitive tasks and 92% of daily memory failure surveys. Multilevel models were conducted to determine if survivors report more daily fatigue on days when memory failures were reported. Results indicated that differences between people accounted for 69% of the variation in daily fatigue. Contrary to predictions, survivors did not report more fatigue on days when memory failures were reported. However, survivors who reported more memory failures across the two weeks also reported higher levels of daily fatigue. In sum, ecological cognitive assessments can inform which and when survivors are affected and which domains are impacted, essential information for developing interventions targeted to survivors most impacted by decreased quality of life and situations in which they are most at-risk.