A study looking at how chemotherapy can affect the memory of young adults

Cancer type:

Breast cancer

Lymphoma

Sarcoma

Status:

Results

Phase:

Other

This project looked at whether memory, thinking, and quality of life were affected in younger adults who were having, or had finished, chemotherapy. It was for people between 16 and 50 years old.

The project was open for people to join between 2011 and 2014. The team published some of the results in 2017 and 2019. They hope to publish more results in the future.

More about this trial

Doctors often use chemotherapy to treat cancer. Other research had suggested that chemotherapy can affect people’s memory and thinking, and how they understand and deal with information. This is sometimes called chemo brain.

A lot of this research had been done with older adults. The research team wanted to look at this in adults of working age, between 16 and 50 years old.

The research team looked at 3 groups of people. Those who:

had cancer and were due to start chemotherapy
had had cancer and finished chemotherapy
didn’t have cancer and were not having chemotherapy (the control group)

The people taking part did several tests which looked at:

concentration
thinking
short term and long term memory
other factors such as anxiety and tiredness

The project also included a review of other research that had already been done.

The main aim of this project was to find out if having chemotherapy affected memory and thinking in adults of working age.

Summary of results

There were 4 studies that were all part of this project. There is a summary about each one below.

Study 1 - review of previous research
The researchers looked at 44 research studies that had already been done. Most found that cancer and its treatment had a negative impact on people’s short and long term memory. This affected things like remembering words and being able to maintain attention.

Study 2 - the immediate effects of chemotherapy
The study team found it harder to find people who were happy to join this project than they’d hoped.

A total of 20 people took part:

10 people with cancer who were due to have chemotherapy
10 people who didn’t have cancer and were not having chemotherapy

The people taking part did the same memory test for three days in a row.

The research team compared the memory of people having chemotherapy to their memory before treatment, and to those not having chemotherapy.

They found that people having chemotherapy:

found it more difficult to remember and learn new things
forgot things such as a list of words more quickly
were more likely to remember things wrong

They concluded that chemotherapy can affect how the brain works (cognitive function) in people of working age.

Study 3 - memory and thinking after cancer treatment
A total of 150 people took part:

75 people who had cancer and had finished treatment
75 people who had never had cancer or cancer treatment

The research team concluded that people who have had treatment for cancer had more problems:

remembering a story in the short term and long term
recalling lists of words and when or where they were learned
understanding visual information (visuo-spatial skills)
maintaining their attention on tasks

This is compared to people who haven’t had cancer or treatment for cancer.

The researchers suggest more work is done to find out if people still have these problems longer term or not.

Study 4 – the effect on quality of life
This study looked at the links between memory and thinking, symptoms, tiredness, distress and quality of life Open a glossary item .

A total of 57 people took part. They had all finished treatment for cancer.

The team looked at what factors affected people’s quality of life. They found it was things such as:

how many symptoms people have or think they might get (illness identity)
how long they think they will be ill for
what they think will happen in the future
issues with memory or thinking
extreme tiredness (fatigue)
anxiety or distress
depression

Conclusion
The researchers concluded that cancer specific factors can affect people’s quality of life. Some can affect people more than others.

They suggest that healthcare professionals discuss quality of life in specific terms. This could include things such as distress, fatigue, memory issues, thinking issues and physical symptoms, and ways to manage these long term. This is more helpful for people than discussing quality of life in general terms.

More detailed information
There is more information about this research in the references below.

Please note, the information we link to here is not in plain English. It has been written for healthcare professionals and researchers.

Discussing factors associated with quality of life in cancer follow-up appointments: a preliminary test of a pragmatic model for clinical practice
Oana C Lindner and others
Clinical Rehabilitation, 2019. Volume 33, issue 4, pages 762-772.

Acute memory deficits in chemotherapy-treated adults
Oana C Lindner and others
Memory. 2017. Volume 25, issue 10, pagesb1327-1339.

A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive Impairment Following Adult Cancer Chemotherapy
Oana C Lindner and others
Neuropsychology, 2014. Volume 28, issue 5, pages 726–740.

Chemotherapy, distress, and cognitive impairments in young adult cancer survivors
Oana C Lindner, 2014
Conference Poster
Accessed October 2024.

Research findings in "Chemo-brain"
Oana C Lindner and others
The University of Manchester Research, 2014.

Chemotherapy-induced cognitive changes
Oana C Lindner
PhD Thesis, 2014.
School of psychological sciences, University of Manchester

Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on the information in the articles above. These have been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in medical journals. We have not analysed the data ourselves. The information on Study 3 is from an open-access PhD thesis and presentation in professional conferences, it has not yet been peer reviewed.