Study Background:
Patients with breast cancer often complain of mental changes that accompany disease treatment, using phrases like “always feeling in a fog” or “chemo-brain” to describe their experiences.  These changes in concentration, memory, decision making, and judgment (“cognitive functioning”) negatively impact women’s overall quality of life, their ability to return to normal activities at work and in the home. These mental changes interfere with patients’ ability to make complex decisions about their cancer treatments.  Only recently have researchers begun to take these complaints seriously enough to try and study them in rigorous ways.  To date, the main focus of the very limited research has been on the side effects women experience after chemotherapy.

Study Organization:
We have developed a 40-minute comprehensive group of previously validated tests, focusing on attention span, information processing and verbal memory.  The testing can be used on women regardless of their language skills because the test components are not dependent on ability to read or speak a particular language. Each of the tests focuses on a particular area of cognitive functioning that appears to be affected by cancer treatments.

Two distinct patient samples will be enrolled.  Each will receive specific treatment, either hormonal treatment or intense chemotherapy.  This allows the cognitive effects to be isolated and properly evaluated.