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The systems of the body most affected by chemotherapy drugs include visual and semantic memory, attention and motor coordination and executive functioning. [9] [10] These effects can impair a chemotherapy patient's ability to understand and make decisions regarding treatment, perform in school or employment and can reduce quality of life. [10]
Certain treatments for childhood cancer are known to cause learning problems in survivors, particularly when central nervous system (CNS)-directed therapies are used (e.g. cranial radiation; high-dose methotrexate or cytarabine; or intrathecal chemotherapy). As the mortality rates of childhood cancers have plummeted since effective treatment ...
Delirium (formerly acute confusional state, an ambiguous term that is now discouraged) [1] is a specific state of acute confusion attributable to the direct physiological consequence of a medical condition, effects of a psychoactive substance, or multiple causes, which usually develops over the course of hours to days.
Cancer cells can also cause defects in the cellular pathways of apoptosis (programmed cell death). As most chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells in this manner, defective apoptosis allows survival of these cells, making them resistant. Many chemotherapy drugs also cause DNA damage, which can be repaired by enzymes in the cell that carry out DNA ...
The body's inflammatory response to surgery likely plays an important role, at least in elderly patients. Various research initiatives during recent years have evaluated whether actions taken before, during and after surgery can lessen the possible deleterious effects of inflammation. For example, anti-inflammatory agents can be given before ...
Radiation therapy at doses around "23.4 Gy" was found to cause cognitive decline that was especially apparent in young children who underwent the treatment for cranial tumors, between the ages of 5 and 11. Studies found, for example, that the IQ of 5-year-old children declined each year after treatment by additional several IQ points, thereby ...
Stress, hypometabolism, and oxidative damage may decrease physiologic reserve in the elderly and can lead to a decrease in neuron energy production and an increase in neuron damage. [12] Thioredoxin reductase is an antioxidant that neutralizes oxidative free radicals that can cause cell death. The brain is vulnerable to oxidative free radicals ...
Treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemias can often be postponed until after the end of the pregnancy. If treatment is necessary, then giving chemotherapy during the second or third trimesters is less likely to result in pregnancy loss or birth defects than treatment during the first trimester .