Prostate cancer therapy may impair cognition
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Up to 69 percent of men who receive hormone deprivation therapy for prostate cancer will experience some degree of cognitive impairment, such as in the ability to concentrate, a review of published data suggests.
Men with recurrent or advanced prostate cancer may be put on hormone therapy to block testosterone production in an effort to halt or slow the growth of the tumor.
"There is a strong argument" that hormone deprivation therapy -- also known as androgen deprivation therapy or ADT -- is linked to "subtle but significant cognitive decline in men with prostate cancer," Dr. Christian J. Nelson, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and colleagues note in a report in the journal Cancer.
They suggest that doctors and patients be aware of this "possible side effect" of ADT.
Nelson and colleagues reviewed 19 relevant studies involving animals and humans.
According to the results, between 47 percent and 69 percent of ADT-treated men show impairment in one or more cognitive areas, most commonly in processes dependent on spatial ability and in high-order "executive functioning" abilities such as the ability to multi-task.
By contrast, in some studies, there was evidence that ADT may have improved verbal memory functioning.
Although designed well, most of the studies looking at the effects of ADT on cognition were small in size, Nelson and colleagues note.
The researchers call for larger studies to confirm these findings and recommend that such studies incorporate brain imaging, as has been done in analyses of the cognitive effects of chemotherapy for breast cancer.
SOURCE: Cancer, online July 28, 2008.
