Impairment of cognitive function in patients submitted to adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer: A follow up study

Abstract

8027 Background: There is increasing evidence that the degree and duration of cancer treatment may contribute to cognitive impairment. However, the precise role of standard adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) in early breast cancer patients in the development of these impairments needs to be further investigated. Methods: The study design is longitudinal providing follow-up 12 months later. The treated group consisted of 53 breast cancer survivors (age, 60.3±4,3 yr) who were treated with ACT (5 yr since the end of cancer treatment). Patients (pts) were treated with CMF (n=24), ADM (n=4), CMF+ADM (n=25) plus (n=37) or minus (n=16) tamoxifene. The control group consisted of 71 breast cancer survivors (age, 63.4±4,1 yr) not treated with ACT (5 yr post-surgery). All pts were assessed using the following neuropsychological tests: two cognitive deterioration-screening tests (MODA and MMSE); 12 analytic tests (Prose memory test, Word list learning test, Digit cancellation test, Trail making test, Verbal span, Raven Coloured progressive matrices, Elithorn's perceptual maze test, Token test, Verbal phonemic fluency, Verbal semantic fluency, Street's completion test, Figure copying test). Results: Comparisons between the two groups did not reveal statistically significant differences on MMSE (treated group 29,6±0,9; control group 29.7±0.8) and MODA (treated group 94,4±3.3; control group 95.2±2.6) scores. Analysis of performance, in the 12 neuropsychological tests, showed statistically significant differences between the groups on Prose Memory Test (Wilcoxon Test, P=0,03) and Verbal Fluency Test (Wilcoxon Test, P=0,01).The treated group performances on the Prose Memory and on the Verbal Fluency scores were significantly worse than those of the control group. Conclusions: The preliminary results of this study show the presence of statistically significant difference on episodic memory and phonemic lexical access abilities between the groups. We propose that all pts over 55 yrs undergoing ACT should be submitted to a basal evaluation of cognitive function. This study was supported by grant from Healthy Ministry, PRF Conv. N.ICS 160/RA00.72 No significant financial relationships to disclose.