Cognitive Impairment Present in Four Patients With Breast Cancer
A quarter of patients with breast cancer experience cognitive impairment before initiating anticancer therapy, a new study suggests.
Of 891 articles screened for a systematic review, 90 were identified as potentially relevant, and upon full-text examination, 17 made it to the final analysis. The prevalence of cognitive impairment was highest before therapy (25%), followed by after therapy (24%) and then at maximal one-year follow-up (21%). About a quarter of patients experienced a decline in cognitive functioning from pre- to posttreatment (24%); similarly, 24% of patients declined from pretreatment to one-year follow-up. According to some studies, patients may experience improvements in their cognition, ranging from 15% after treatment to 31% at one-year follow-up.
