| Abstract: |
(from the chapter) Dysfunction in memory and attention associated with cancer treatment has gained increased attention over the past two decades. In 1999 the President's Cancer Panel and the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship formally recognized the problem as a quality of life matter that deserved higher priority in clinical research. With nearly 1 million chemotherapy recipients annually in the United States alone, the problem is widespread. Over this same time span, research has clearly documented persistent cognitive deficits following various cancer treatments, especially for the pediatric population, but there has been increasing investigation on the effects of systemic chemotherapy among adult cancer survivors. The nature of these findings will be summarized here to illustrate the rationale for cognitive and behavioral strategies that may help improve management of chemotherapy-related cognitive dysfunction. This chapter will describe a recently developed cognitive-behavioral treatment that is being studied to aid survivors with chemotherapy-related cognitive problems and outline future directions of management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved). |
