Chemotherapy-induced prospective memory impairment in breast cancer patients with different hormone receptor expression

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate prospective memory impairment in patients with breast cancer with different expression of hormone receptors, including the estrogen receptor (ER) and the progesterone receptor (PR).A total of 120 patients with breast cancer who underwent chemotherapy following surgery were divided into 2 groups. The A group included 60 patients with ER−/PR− status, and the B group included 60 patients with ER+/PR+ status. After 6 cycles of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, all patients were administered neuropsychological and prospective memory tests, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), verbal fluency test (VFT), and digit span test (DST), as well as examination of event-based prospective memory (EBPM) and time-based prospective memory (TBPM).As the neuropsychological background test results showed, there were no significant differences in MMSE, DST, and TBPM scores (∗:P > 0.05) between patients with breast cancer in the ER−/PR− and ER+/PR+ groups, while the VFT and EBPM scores were significantly greater in patients with breast cancer with ER+/PR+ status than in those with ER−/PR− status (∗∗: P < 0.01), indicating that patients with ER−/PR− status have significant impairment in EBPM, although not in TBPM.The results of the present study indicate that different hormone receptor expression in patients with breast cancer may be associated with heterogeneity of chemotherapy-induced prospective memory impairment.

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Gene Polymorphisms and the Risk of Chemotherapy-Induced Prospective Memory Impairment in Breast Cancer Patients with Varying Tumor Hormonal Receptor Expression

“…Memory impairment is a frequent cognitive adverse effect of chemotherapy [ 25 ], and may result in difficulties in everyday functioning and reduced quality of life in breast cancer patients [ 26 , 27 ]. Following our previous study documenting PM deficits [ 11 ], we replicated the finding here that patients with ER−/PR− breast cancer experience worse chemotherapy-associated EBPM impairments than those with ER+/PR+ breast cancer [ 10 ].…”

“…In our previous study, we found PM impairments in breast cancer patients following chemotherapy. Also, patients with estrogen/progesterone receptor negative tumors (ER−/PR−) demonstrated significant deficits in EBPM but not TBPM [ 10 , 11 ].…”

“…A meta-analysis evaluated the variability of CICI in breast cancer patients [ 13 ]. For instance, our previous work showed heterogeneity among CICI in patients with breast cancer with various tumor hormone receptor expression profiles, with ER−/PR− but not ER+/PR+ showing deficits in EBPM after treatment with chemotherapy [ 10 , 14 ].…”

Preserved Memory Function of Rats Following Fluorouracil Treatment

“…In chemotherapy protocols, several chemotherapeutic agents are often combined to avoid drug resistance and to be more effective. Previous clinical and experimental studies have identified impaired memory function as an effect of chemotherapy [15,16]. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of 5-FU on memory function when administered alone.…”

Exploring the possible application of implementation intention on prospective memory of cancer patients

“…Other studies focused on differences between event-based prospective memory and time-based prospective memory deficits. While both timebased prospective memory and event-based prospective memory performances have been evaluated in cancer patients, event-based prospective memory performance has been observed to bear a higher impairment than time-based prospective memory W. Li et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2015).…”