Long-term cognitive function following chemotherapy in patients with testicular cancer

Abstract

Cancer patients frequently report cognitive complaints following chemotherapy, but the results from the available studies, mainly of women with breast cancer, are inconsistent. Our aim was to compare cognitive function of men with testicular cancer (TC) who had orchiectomy and chemotherapy (bleomycin, etoposide, cisplatin) with men who had orchiectomy only or orchiectomy and radiotherapy. Thirty-six chemotherapy patients and 36 nonchemotherapy patients were tested 2-7 years after treatment for TC with standardized neuropsychological tests. Chemotherapy and nonchemotherapy patients displayed similar performances on cognitive tests (p values adjusted for multiple comparisons: .63-1.00). Moreover, there was no difference in the proportion of cognitively impaired patients in the chemotherapy group (5.6%) compared to the nonchemotherapy group (8.3%) (chi2 = 0.22, p = .64). Our results are discordant with previous findings indicating cognitive impairment following chemotherapy and suggest that TC patients do not need to fear long-term cognitive consequences following chemotherapy.