Cancer Fatigue and Chemo-Brain
Joyce: I do that. I have support groups and I have people I see in the doctor’s office but we haven’t come up with anything yet. But I do keep inquiring, which I guess is the best way.
Dr. John Glaspy: Good luck.
Joyce: Okay, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Bye-bye.
Arline Kallick: We will take our last question now.
Operator: Our last question comes from Paula from Illinois. Please go ahead.
Paula: First of all I want to say thank you very much for a very informative sharing of information. Number one I dislike the term chemobrain. I think if we do call it Chemo Cognitive Disorder Syndrome we might get more respect. The second thing is I am a dense dose chemotherapy therapy with Phase IV breast cancer and I do agree that this is a long-term problem that affects those of us. I want to know if there is any use of anything like selenium or melatonin that will impact our sleep patterns and help in assisting this process?
Dr. John Glaspy: There is a dearth of data for melatonin or selenium. Either I am not aware of it or the data isn’t out there to tell if this works. So it would be sort of an experiment for yourself type deal there. There has been one study that suggested that sleep gets better with antidepressant treatments in this setting. But that’s something a lot of people don’t want to do because of the side effects of the antidepressants.
Paula: I’ve been taking both of them and I think I have noticed an increase in my sleep patterns being more stable.
Dr. John Glaspy: Good.
Paula: I have also taken…I mean this is with my oncologist’s blessing. Anything I do is through them and with their full knowledge because I think we have to work as a team on this.
Dr. John Glaspy: I agree with that and I don’t like the name chemobrain either. That one actually comes from the patients. That’s the patients who ended up calling it that and the name was so powerful it stuck.
Paula: Unfortunately, yes.
Dr. John Glaspy: I don’t like it because it’s misleading. It may be that this is a real syndrome that happens in patients who receive chemotherapy but it’s not caused by the chemotherapy affecting the brain. The way to set a field back a couple of years in terms of solving a problem is to have a misleading name that forces people to make assumptions that aren’t true.
Paula: My oncologist was very forthcoming with all the different symptoms including…well, first of all I have tooth problems with nerve problems. Part of my mouth is numb so pronunciation is a real issue with me right now. That’s another complement of chemotherapy but they were very forthcoming with the possibility of complications with cognitive functioning because I was in the process of finishing a dissertation and they told me you better put this on hold because we don’t want you working on this until you are comfortable. So I learned I have to come up with a new normal for me now. My old normal is no longer probably a good goal for me so I am looking for a new normal me until I kind of come out the woods on this one.
Is there anything at all that we can do to aid in this process of recovery?
Dr. John Glaspy: I have sort of shot my bolt in terms of what I know can be done to help you.
Paula: The reason that I am asking is I just saw an advertisement on TV about this new game that is supposed to help with cognitive function. It’s like a Game Boy that’s supposed to have different games on it that’s supposed to help with processing.
Dr. John Glaspy: This is for the Alzheimer’s people? Is that what it’s being developed for?
Paula: Yes.
Dr. John Glaspy: Again, it would be very logical to try it and it would be something for people to study and publish if it’s effective because it would be something that can be done.
Paula: Are there any new studies being done currently?
Dr. John Glaspy: There are lots of studies being done and I tried to sort of (inaudible) where they are going. There is a lot of cytokine blocker work going on. There are four or five more clinical trials coming regarding exercise. There is not a lot going on with the alternative treatments in an organized study fashion right now. There is some more data coming with brain activators; drugs other than dexmethylphenidate.
Paula: I am deficiently going to mention that to my doctor and we’ll take a look at the research on that.
Dr. John Glaspy: There is a trial out there that was presented at ASCO last year.
Paula: Is it from Northwestern?
Dr. John Glaspy: Yes…was it a trial through Northwestern? No, I think that’s the one about the problem happening earlier than the chemotherapy in women. That was a Chicago study. That was from Northwestern.
Paula: Okay, because I had just seen a pamphlet on it.
Dr. John Glaspy: The dexmethylphenidate study was multi-institutional.
Paula: My oncologist advocates a lot of exercise and he also advocated not only the physical aerobic type but also the yoga, the mental balance. I have been doing both of those and I have noticed an improvement long-term; it doesn’t come overnight.
Dr. John Glaspy: Yes, it’s hard work. The first author on the dexmethylphenidate study is Lower, L-o-w-e-r.
Paula: Okay. I appreciate that and I look forward to hearing more from you. Thank you.
Arline Kallick: I would like to take this opportunity before we break into small groups to thank Dr. Glaspy. It was a wonderful program; very informative. You spoke very clearly and answered a lot of very good questions as usual. Thank you so much Dr. Glaspy.
Dr. John Glaspy: Thanks for having me.
Arline Kallick: Thank you again and good evening..
