Cancer chemotherapy is shown to impair the brain - Los Angeles Times: "Cancer chemotherapy is shown to impair the brain
Findings that it can kill cells and cause areas to shrink lend support to patients' reports of feeling mental effects.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
December 1, 2006


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Cancer chemotherapy can impair the brain, killing crucial neural cells and causing key parts of the organ to shrink, according to two studies released this week.

The new findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that 'chemo brain' — the mental fuzziness, memory loss and cognitive impairment often reported by cancer patients but often dismissed by oncologists — is a serious problem.

'Those of us on the front lines have known this for a long time, but now we have some neuropathological evidence that what we are seeing involves an anatomic change,' said Dr. Stewart Fleishman, director of cancer supportive services at Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York. "