Patients who take medication for cancer often find themselves with a new problem when their treatment ends. It’s called “chemobrain,” a common consequence of chemotherapy that causes memory problems, confusion and difficulty in concentrating. Symptoms of chemobrain can also include lack of focus, inability to organize daily activities, mental confusion, memory loss and decreased mental clarity. It’s estimated that chemobrain occurs in as many as 99 percent of breast and ovarian cancer patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Sixty-one percent of these patients continue to experience fatigue and memory problems long after their cancer treatment has stopped. Now, researchers led by the University of Cincinnati’s (UC) Elyse Lower, MD, report a possible new treatment for the problem using the drug dexmethyphenidate (d-MPH).Dr. Lower, professor of hematology/oncology at UC College of Medicine, recently described the encouraging results of a 14-month, multi-center, Phase 2 study of d-MPH to the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
