A randomized trial of cognitive rehabilitation in cancer survivors

Aims

The second most frequently reported post-treatment symptom in cancer survivors are concerns about impaired cognition. Despite numerous studies demonstrating significant impairments in a portion of survivors, information on effective treatments remains an emerging area of research. This study examined the effectiveness of a group-based cognitive rehabilitation intervention in cancer survivors.

Main methods

This study was a randomized, controlled study of a 7-week cognitive rehabilitation intervention delivered in group format. Participants were evaluated with subjective symptom questionnaires and objective neurocognitive tests prior to and following treatment.

Key findings

Twenty-eight participants (mean age 58 years) with a median of 3 years (± 6 years) post-primary/adjuvant treatment and various cancer sites (breast, bladder, prostate, colon, uterine) completed the study. Compared to baseline, the treatment group demonstrated improvements in symptoms of perceived cognitive impairments (p < .01), cognitive abilities (p < .01) and overall quality of life with regard to cognitive symptoms (p < .01) as measured by the FACT-Cog. The treatment group also improved on objective measures of attention (p < .05) and a trend toward improvement on verbal memory. Significant improvement was not observed on all cognitive tests.

Significance

A group based cognitive rehabilitation intervention in cancer survivors was effective for improving attention abilities and overall quality of life related to cognition. Results suggest that group based cognitive rehabilitation may be an effective intervention for treating cognitive dysfunction in cancer patients and should be further studied in a larger trial with an active control condition.