Has anyone seen the news reports today - the findings (printed by the Journal of Biology) - see link below - said it explains some of the neurological side effects associated with chemotherapy. These include memory loss, poor concentration etc. These effects usually known as ‘chemo brain’ were often dismissed as the by-products of fatigue and the anxiety of coping with cancer, but now it seems that the damaging effects of chemo on the brain can be felt for many years after treatment has ended. Might explain why when I went to collect my daughter from school and as I was just about to get out of the car, I realised that I had gone out of the house ‘au naturelle’ without a thing on my head.
I’ve just read it on the BBC website and realised that now I know why I have been so forgetful, dippy, and sometimes down right stupid! I nearly put a pouch of cat food in soap powder draw of my machine last weekend, and I had chemo last year!!
Anne
Well, we all knew it didn’t we? I’ve never understood why ‘chemo brain’ wasn’t listed as a side effect anywhere. Maybe now it will be as it’s been proven in mice!
I’m six months on from chemo and still find myself halfway through a sentence but unable to find the next word I want, and as for following the plot of a film that’s anything other than straight forward…
Before I was diagnosed I was studying for professional exams, now I cant even read a page of book without having to read it again! My boss kept saying its my age!!
Anne
Also a short atricle about it in todays London Metro
i have not had chemo but still find I’m forgetful !!! and can’t finish off sentences.
I boiled the kettle yesterday made the tea, and then managed to put the kettle in the fridge and left the milk on the side…and I finished chemo in october…dear me!!!
Scarily enough my memory has IMPROVED on chemo(second week onwards) about certain things anyway !
Looked it up on the Net and the culprit is 5-FU which they say is not used much in chemo treatments any more.
Are you taking that?
Emily
xxx
ive not started my chemo yet and my memory is bad as it is, so what on earth am i going to be like after chemo!! thats frightening.
I have had so many chemos but among them I was twice on those containing 5FU - ECF which is Epirubicin, carboplatin and Flurouracil (5-FU), also on another occasion Xeloda (Capeticabine) The body converts capecitabine into a common chemotherapy drug called 5-fluorouracil or 5FU! The first of those in 1997 and the other in 2003. No wonder my mind is in a mess! I have never believed it was to do with my age (63) but the cumulative effect of the chemos.
EmilyJane - you are right that ECF is not often used nowadays but it is in FEC and Xeloda is big time! and not many realise how closely implicated 5-FU is in this one.
dawnhc
5-FU is Fluorouracil which is the “F” part of FEC chemo and which a lot of us have had or are currently having. I had FEC four years ago so am not sure whether the lack of concentration and memory loss I sometimes experience is due to the chemo or is more to do with ageing and the menopause! Something else for us to worry about …!
Jo
I had an aunt who was one of the ladies who agreed to volunteer for the first trials of 5-FU in this country, she had breast cancer way back in the very early 70s when I was a child. I believe 5-FU was the first and only drug they had developed back then. All I can say is, she lived until she was 83 with no re-emergence of her cancer (which was in most of her lymph nodes). She was as bright as a button until about the last year of her life and had a great sense of humour as well. Both her her mother and sister died from BC so there was a genetic link in her family. An onc at my aunt’s funeral service stood up to say the women like her who went on the first trials were pioneers for the future generations of breast cancer patients. I was diagnosed a few weeks later and there is not a day has gone by throughout my treatment where I do not think about this fantastic lady, I am sure she is looking down on me (when I was in hospital last year I could see her grave from my room window and I actually found it a comfort).
I had 4x FEC, 25 rads, 4 Taxotere and have just finished Herceptin 3 weeks ago. I can now thankfully say my concentration is pretty much fine and I’m retraining in web design and copywriting. Thsi time last year I could not remember things after 15 minutes!
More information. The study acknowledged that there is a lasting effect from chemo. The 5-FU seems to trigger a latent tendency. It is far from conclusive; it is being touted as the first step in acknowledging that there CAN be problems with cognitive functioning. Not that there will be.
The sentence no one will read (probably) is that the chemo is far worth the alternative. What to do about it? Among the remedies are relaxation training to focus attention, exercise, cognitive rehabilitation and medicine such as anti-inflammatory agents, she said.
I hope this alleviates some fears. Perhaps we should put together a crossword puzzle club…
Emily
xxx
These media reports are unbelievable! The way they present information is guaranteed to leave people in a state of confusion, and so often the information that has been around for some time. Until there is a method of identifying how any individual will respond to a treatment, we will have to show a degree of faith in what is offered. I had FEC, and so far as I can tell, it has not affected my cognitive functions (some may think otherwise!).
Interestingly, I’m taking part in a Phd study on “Cognitive function, mood and quality of life in women with early breast cancer receiving adjuvant chemotherapy” which is apparently the most comprehensive information ever collected of the cognitive changes associated with breast cancer tratment. Taking place at Australian National University in Canberra (where we are living for three years). I had to go along for four hours of testing after my surgery, have a second appointment now that chemo is finished and will then have a third appointment in six more months. A control group of women who have had surgery and radiotherapy but no chemo are going through the same tests. I’ll let you know the outcome (if I can remember!!! ha ha)
good for you, seabird. Words can be twisted, manipulated. Statistics and numbers can be manipulated just as easily to make the numbers work in your favor. Let us know what the reality is!
(no doubt in my mind you will remember!)
Emily
xxx
I think i will take my chances on xeloda. better than getting the bc back again !!!
A small group of us from our support group were approached to take part in a focus group being conducted by Loughborough university looking into this very subject.
The one thing I did query with the facilitator was how were they able to evaluate this piece of work effectively when they weren’t taking into consideration how much psychological and emotional impact a diagnosis can have on a person. I was informed (nicely!) that her remit was only to look at chemo and it’s effect on cognitive behaviour.
I’ve been on Xeloda since September 2006 so no hope for me! Plus, like Dawnhc, I’ve had other types of chemo over the last 13 years.
Pinkdove
The Daily Mail unhelpfully called it 5-RU! Fluorouracil is the F part of CMF too, which I and many others have after a course of Epirubicin.
I haven’t got that far yet but have trouble remembering the cats’ names lately!