Chemobrain--What is it?

Many people going through cancer treatments report that they are experiencing a change in the way they think. Some describe it as a generalized mental fog. For some people it is temporary and annoying, for others it is long-lasting and life- altering.

As the name suggests, people experience "chemobrain" as the result of chemotherapy, but a significant number of people report similar problems after receiving hormonal treatments, radiation, surgery or even just the diagnosis. Both men and women report this cognitive problem.

More questions than answers exist at this point, but the most significant advance to date is that "chemobrain" is being acknowledged as a real condition.


"Chemobrain" is made up of a cluster of symptoms that can have a profound impact on your quality of life. For example cancer patients and survivors reported difficulties in a variety of cognitive areas:

• inability to multi-task
• decreased ability to remember facts and events
• being easily distracted
• failing to complete tasks, especially on dead-line
• becoming overwhelmed on a frequent basis

Often physicians, family members, and colleagues hearing these complaints attributed the causes to fatigue, stress, anxiety, pain and/or depression. While all of these factors may be a part of "chemobrain" it is likely that there is much more involved. There is evidence that drugs, genetics, inflammatory responses, autoimmune responses may all contribute to altering the brain chemistry.

Today there is a growing body of serious research into neurocognitive late effects.
One of the leaders in this area is Dr. Christina Meyers, a neuropsychologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Her recently published book, Cognition and Cancer, provides information and data to oncologists, as well as other medical personnel, who may not be convinced that "chemobrain" exists.

Dr. Meyers says that while there is a huge amount of information about the effects that cancer treatment has on the brain, much of it has not filtered down to the practitioners. In fact, many health care professionals believe that "chemobrain" is a psychiatric issue.

Some of the barriers to accepting or even seeking this information could be that oncologists, in particular, are focused on putting their patients into remission. That's their goal. And that is exactly what their patient wants too. But as new techniques for managing cancer are employed, other issues arise--and many of them have to do with quality of life. Oncologists may not have the time or the training to deal with quality of life and/or societal issues. They may view many of the side-effects as necessary evils--things to be endured as part of the cancer treatment.

It is helpful to remember that pain management issues were once viewed that way too. Now there is an entire science around controlling pain. It took some time, but with patients, family members, and health care professionals advocating for better and safer control of pain, new ways of looking at the problem resulted in better outcomes.

I hope that will be the pathway for dealing with "chemobrain."

Next blog will talk about ways to make life more manageable with "chemobrain."