Study Proves the Existence of Chemo-Brain

Lisa Franchi May 01, 2015

Scientists from the University of British Columbia affirmed, through brain scan results, the existence of “chemo-brain”. They found that the minds of patients with chemo-brain lack the ability for sustained focused thought.

In the study, breast cancer survivors were asked to complete a set of tasks whilst researchers monitored their brain activity. Their findings showed that chemotherapy can lead to excessive mind wandering and an inability to concentrate.

"A healthy brain spends some time wandering and sometime engaged," said Todd Handy, one of the researchers and a professor of psychology at UBC. "We found that chemo brain is a chronically wandering brain, they’re essentially stuck in a shut out mode."

According to Handy, healthy brains function in a cyclic way. People can focus on a task and be completely engaged for a few seconds and then will let their mind wander a bit. Chemo brains, on the other hand, tend to stay in that disengaged state.

Worse, even when women thought they were focusing on a task, the measurements indicated that a large part of their brain was turned off and their mind was wandering, the researchers found.

They also discovered that women with “chemo-brains” were more focused on their inner world. When the women were not performing a task and simply asked to relax, their brain was more active compared to healthy women.

Tests developed for other cognitive disorders like brain injury or Alzheimer’s have proven ineffective for measuring chemo brain. Cancer survivors tend to be able to complete these tests but then struggle to cope at work or in social situations because they find they are forgetful.

"These findings could offer a new way to test for chemo brain in patients and to monitor if they are getting better over time," says lead researcher Kristin Campbell, an associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy.

The study was published in the journal Clinical Neurophysiology.

Source of this article: Sustained attention abnormalities in breast cancer survivors with cognitive deficits post chemotherapy: An electrophysiological study