Effects of Cancer Chemotherapy and Cytokines on Subjective and Objective Cognitive Functioning Among Patients with Breast Cancer

摘要

Although cognitive impairments have been complained about in patients with breast cancer who underwent chemotherapy, recent research has described possible neurocognitive decline prior to the start of chemotherapy and suggested that inflammatory cytokines may also have been involved. However, inconsistencies have been found in correlations of cognitive impairments with cancer, chemotherapy, and peridiagnostic cytokine levels. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine associations of cognitive functions and levels of cytokines in patients with newly- diagnosed breast cancer before chemotherapy, those that were 3 to 9 months after completing chemotherapy, and non-cancer controls, adjusting for baseline intelligence quotient, mood, and fatigue. We found that the performance in semantic association of verbal fluency in patients post chemotherapy might be affected by the status of cancer, IL-13, and anxiety. Our results indicated that verbal fluency and anxiety may be important when considering relevant psychosocial managements or prophylactic interventions for cognitive preservation associated with regulations in cytokines.