Toward better understanding and management of chemobrain: the potential utilities of the MemTrax memory test.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of chemotherapy on cognitive function in breast cancer patients, and to investigate the relationship of MemTrax test of memory and related functions to the FACT-Cog functional self-assessment for the evaluation and management of chemobrain. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, clinical information of pathologically confirmed female breast cancer patients who decided to receive chemotherapy were collected in a questionnaire which was developed for this study and provided as a supplementary file. The FACT-Cog self-assessment and MemTrax test were administered before and after the chemotherapy treatments. Patients with chemobrain were identified using published criteria based on FACT-Cog scores, and MemTrax scores from chemobrain patients were analyzed. RESULTS: Fifty-six patients participated in this study, of which 41 participants completed 4 or more cycles of chemotherapy and were included in the final analyses here. Using the reported high end of minimal clinical differences (10.6 points) of FACT-Cog before and after chemotherapy, 18 patients suffered from chemobrain in this study. In these 18 chemobrain patients, no cognitive impairments were detected by MemTrax, which paradoxically demonstrated an improvement in the normal cognitive range. CONCLUSION: The cognitive impairment induced by chemotherapy in breast cancer patients is detectable by the FACT-Cog in a Chinese cohort but is not detected by the MemTrax memory test. The fact that the more objective MemTrax could not detect the impairment could alleviate patients' concerns which in turn would be beneficial for patients' mental health.