Breast cancer is the most common among western women. In our country, according to the AECC, about 22,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, especially in women between 45 and 65 years of age. Thanks to advances in early diagnosis, five-year survival is around 83% of those affected, the most frequent treatments being surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy.
However, although survival is the main goal, the quality of life that awaits these patients should not be forgotten. In this sense, it is common to find that breast cancer survivors have a higher prevalence of cognitive complaints than healthy women. In a study published recently in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, they analyzed the complaints of a group of 189 women who had been treated for breast cancer. They found that 23.3% had more memory complaints (about 1 in 5) than a control group. The researchers published that the higher degree of memory complaints was significantly associated with the combined treatment of radiotherapy and chemotherapy and with greater depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the complaints appeared to be well founded as the group of women who had had cancer was found to perform worse on tests of verbal memory.
A team of Canadian researchers has published in The Breast that breast cancer survivors also have more trouble remembering things that ‘need to be done’ at a certain future time, known as prospective memory. Calling the doctor tomorrow at 9 o’clock or remembering to tell your partner when he comes back from work that his friend Miguel called him, are examples of this cognitive ability so present in everyday forgetfulness.
According to this study, breast cancer survivors present a clear pattern of deficit in this type of memory, which is greatly influenced by the levels of fatigue in the patients. The authors conclude that further research on this topic is essential in order to design treatments that can improve the cognitive functioning of these survivors.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
