OT and Cancer-Related Cognitive Dysfunction

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There were a lot of different options to choose from to listen to/watch for this blog post and that is so amazing. The options are literally endless and we can be wherever we are needed, which is the major takeaway I learned from this assignment. I wanted to focus specifically on the cancer-related cognitive dysfunction as this is something I have personal experience with in the past and present.

I have heard of chemo brain before. My grandfather experienced serious hospital psychosis and probably related cognitive dysfunction due to his brain cancer, chemotherapy, and radiation. One thing that I learned that I did not know before is that research has found that other therapies can cause these impairments and cognitive delay, not just chemotherapy as originally thought. Radiation, hormonal therapies, and other drugs can cause this phenomenon. What I also learned is that the effects of the chemotherapy or other therapy might not be known for a while after treatment has ended, or it might be immediate. It can also go away once treatment is over or last for a long time.

I found it interesting that they talked about the general symptoms and side effects of having cancer in general as an issue in the under-diagnosing of cancer-related cognitive dysfunction. In my sister in law's case, she has a blood cancer and one of the main symptoms is fatigue. They acknowledged that being fatigued can cause anyone to have slower cognitive function and issues with sequencing and processing, which can cause this specific population to go under-diagnosed and in turn, probably under-treated.

They mentioned organizational skills as being an important treatment intervention, but it seems like there needs to be more research and more focus on this phenomenon specifically related to this population, and not be chalked up to general symptoms of fatigue related to cancer. My sister in law is 27 years old and has had three rounds of chemotherapy, but I don't think she has really noticed many changes in her cognitive ability, so I am interested to see how or if it will affect her in the long run. The OT speaking referenced breast cancer patients a lot, so I wonder what the average ages of the patients were and how long the follow up studies were to assess long-term damage, etc.

Overall, I probably would not have known that there was a role OTs could play in the treatment of cancer-related cognitive dysfunction. I am so interested to learn more about our role in this area as well as others!

Comments

  1. Kelsi GrayMarch 22, 2018 at 10:00 AM

    Houstyn, it is very interesting learning about all of the various fields in which occupational therapists are working! I had no idea that OTs can play a role in the treatment of cancer-related cognitive dysfunctions either, but it sounds like it is a setting in which OT services are needed. Perhaps it is a discipline that you could pursue in the future. :)

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