‘Chemo Brain’ Fog May Be a Product of Stress Not Drugs
This article is for subscribers only.
“Chemo brain,” a term describing the forgetfulness and cognitive fog that breast-cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy experience, may have more to do with the stress and fatigue caused by the disease, a study suggests.
More women with breast cancer scored lower on cognitive function tests before getting chemotherapy than did those without the disease, according to research presented today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Women set to undergo radiation, rather than chemotherapy, for their disease also performed worse on memory and thinking tests before therapy.