New research sheds light on why some breast cancer patients experience neurological impairments, with evidence certain areas of the brain are particularly vulnerable to chemotherapy.
Regardless of treatment history, all breast cancer survivors had reduced activation in the left middle dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex and premotor cortex, a US MRI study of executive function in 34 patients and 18 controls found.
But the subgroup of 25 women who underwent chemotherapy had the worst outcomes, including reduced left caudal lateral prefrontal cortex activation and reduced processing speed.
Specifically, reduced BA 8 activation was significantly linked with increased self-reported executive dysfunction in the chemotherapy group.
Writing in the Archives of Neurology, the authors said the left caudal lateral prefrontal region “may represent a novel biomarker of subjective...
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