Part 2 book “Textbook of clinical neuropsychology” has contents: Toxins in the central nervous system, multiple sclerosis and related disorders, sports-related concussion, the three amnesias, basics of forensic neuropsychology, pediatric forensic neuropsychology, clinical psychopharmacology, and other contents. | 23 Cognitive Functions in Adults With Central Nervous System and Non-Central Nervous System Cancers Denise D. Correa and James C. Root Introduction Brain Tumors Cognitive dysfunction is common in many cancer patients and can be related to the disease and to treatment with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy (RT). The neuropsychological domains affected and the severity of the deficits may vary as a result of disease and treatment type, but difficulties in executive functions, motor speed, and learning, and retrieval of information are the most prevalent. In a significant number of cancer patients, changes in cognitive functions interfere with their ability to resume work and social activities at prediagnosis levels. There has been an increase in the number of studies and clinical trials that incorporate standardized cognitive outcome measures for the assessment of patients with cancer of the central nervous system (CNS; see Correa, 2006; Taphoorn & Klein, 2004). New developments have been described in the study of the cognitive side effects of chemotherapy for non-CNS cancers (Correa & Ahles, 2008). These lines of research have provided valuable information about the incidence of cognitive dysfunction in patients with various cancers, and the contribution of treatments involving different regimens and modalities. Studies have also begun to investigate the underlying mechanisms that may contribute to the neurotoxicity of RT and chemotherapy (Dietrich, Han, Yang, Mayer-Proschel, & Noble, 2006; Nordal & Wong, 2005) and interventions to minimize or prevent both structural and functional damage associated with these regimens have been proposed (Gehring, Sitskoorn, Aaronson, & Taphoorn, 2008). The current chapter reviews studies involving patients with brain tumors and breast cancer, considering that most of the research has been conducted in these patient groups. Of note, other emerging areas of study include cognitive dysfunction associated with androgen ablation for .
