Cancer-Related Cognitive Dysfunction

Today I listened to the podcast on cancer- related cognitive dysfunction, it was a very interesting podcast and I was able to learn some useful information to keep in mind if I work with patients with cancer. Caner- related cognitive dysfunction( CRCD) (AKA "Chemo Brain") is thought to be a side effect of the chemo and radiation treatments that patients go through, however patients can still have the cognitive declines even without going through the treatments. I learned that most of the research that has been done on CRCD has been on breast cancer survivor patients, and that 75% of these survivors will be effected by these symptoms. That is a huge amount of patients! Some of the symptoms of CRCD I learned are: deficits in word finding, short term memory, multitasking, problem solving, and thought processing speeds. 

During the podcast, they also talked about how CRCD is often under diagnosed because people can easily relate the symptoms to other things such as aging, or depression, but the symptoms can actually last up to 20 years after the person was diagnosed, which I found to be very interesting. Some cognitive assessments that occupational therapists have used when treating patients with CRCD is the fact cog ( which is available online for free) and the COPM. The fact cog tests over aspects of perceived cognition and function in the cancer community, and it asks questions about cognitive impairments and impact on occupational performance. In the podcast, they mentioned that the most beneficial treatment plan for these types of patients would be working on organizational skills, doing brain games or puzzles, working scheduling rest breaks during the day, sleep routines, and working on limiting distractions in the environment in order to reduce fatigue.