Life of a Chemo Patient

A week ago, this appeared in the New York Times: Chemo Brain May Last 5 Years or More. I quote:

“Chemo brain,” the foggy thinking and forgetfulness that cancer patients often complain about after treatment, may last for five years or more for a sizable percentage of patients, new research shows.
The findings, based on a study of 92 cancer patients at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, suggest that the cognitive losses that seem to follow many cancer treatments are far more pronounced and longer-lasting than commonly believed.

Science Blog says:

It has been widely documented that powerful chemotherapy drugs that leukemia and lymphoma patients receive prior to hematopoietic transplantation (HCT) — as well as medicines to combat graft-versus-host disease — can impact motor and memory skills.

Cytarabine, the substance used for my intrathecal prophylaxis, is a known treatment for leukemia (http://www.rxlist.com/cytarabine-drug.htm).

Prof. Bruce A. Friedman, Active Emeritus Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School and President of the Pathology Education Consortium, writes in his blog Lab Soft News:

The idea of “chemo brain” certainly resonates on the web with my Google search for the term yielding 178,000 results. I can understand how patient complaints about fuzzy thinking may occasionally be dismissed by physicians given the complexity of cancer care. Lucking, the newly emerging field of cancer survivorship has resulted in far greater recognition of the broad, mind-and-body effects of cancer treatments (see: Cancer Survivorship, an Emerging Subdiscipline in Oncology). I don’t know the extent to which medical research on “chemo brain” has identified the specific neurophysiologic mechanisms behind the change. From a very simplistic perspective, it make sense to me that such symptoms could last for five years or more. Some of the body’s cells such as the epithelium lining the GI tract are very short-lived. By way of contrast, neurons have very long lives. It may thus take them a prolonged period of time to recover from the toxic effects of chemotherapeutic agents after the cessation of therapy.

As my oncologist hardly made notes on my symptoms after the treatment and the neurologists I have seen in relation to my symptoms told me I needed to seek psychiatric help, as it could certainly not be medication related, I am happy I wrote this blog, hoping that those who suffer from post-chemo related problems will feel supported. And although this blog is narrative in nature, any scientist willing to do some research can contact me via the comment field.

From the New York Times article:

Although the news of long-term cognitive problems may be disheartening to patients, it’s important for families and patients to know that recovery can take a while. More important, patient treatment plans should include the teaching of coping skills to compensate for potential cognitive losses.
“The first step is to set realistic expectations for people,” said Dr. Syrjala. “It’s not just patients, but their families and employers who need to realize that their brains aren’t processing as rapidly.”

The question remains, is post-treatment planning part of the planning Dr. Syrjala, the study’s lead author, mentioned? To get back to my specific case, there was no post-treatment planning, I was just sent home. And anyways, the article deals with long-term effects of a treatment; in my case it was a prophylaxis, which is probably a whole different ball game.

~ by lodewijk bos on May 12, 2011.

Posted in actuality
Tags: chemo brain