1679P - Self-reported cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) in early breast cancer among Egyptian women: Is disease biology the key?

Background

CRCI is a recognized long-term sequel following cancer diagnosis and therapy, often understudied in developing countries. Our aim was to estimate the prevalence of CRCI prospectively among our patient population, prior to and following chemotherapy, and its association with different variables.

Methods

120 females with breast cancer stages I-III, aged between 18-65 years were recruited, before receiving chemotherapy. Subjective assessment by the functional assessment of cancer therapy-cognitive function scale (FACT-Cog) and objective by the Montreal cognitive assessment screening test (MOCA) was done at baseline and 3 months into chemotherapy.

Results

All 120 patients completed the baseline assessment, but 11 patients (9%) were lost to follow up. There was a statistically significant decrease in the mean total FACT-Cog score at follow up compared to baseline (mean ± SD: 98.12 ± 25.93 vs 109.4 ± 20.83, p<0.001). On univariate analysis, patients with younger age, premenopausal status and higher level of education significantly reported lower means at both time points. Molecular subtypes showed a significant association with the self-reported scores. Luminal B subtype was significantly associated with the highest reported baseline mean (mean± SD: 117.8 ± 15.38), and hence better self-perceived cognition while triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) was associated with the lowest scores (mean± SD: 97.10 ± 23.91) (p=0.001). Similar results were found at follow up. Only the molecular subtypes were found to significantly affect the self-reported scores, in the multivariate analysis. MOCA showed a negative significant correlation with the FACT-Cog (baseline: r= -0.357, p<0.001, and follow up: r= -0.295, p=0.002).

Conclusions

Self-reported CRCI is reported in our cohort at baseline and worsens following chemotherapy. Age, menopausal status, level of education and molecular subtype showed a significant association with the FACT-Cog score. MOCA might be an insensitive objective test to confirm the self-reported cognitive dysfunction.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.