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Abstract

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Cancer patients and survivors often experience acute cognitive impairments; however, the long-term cognitive impact remains unclear particularly among Hispanics/Latinos. We examined the association between cancer history and neurocognitive test performance among middle-aged and older Hispanic/Latinos.</p><p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Participants included 9639 Hispanic/Latino adults from the community-based and prospective Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. At baseline (2008-2011; V1), participants self-reported their cancer history. At V1 and again at a 7-year follow-up (2015-2018; V2), trained technicians administered neurocognitive tests including the Brief-Spanish English Verbal Learning Test (B-SEVLT), Word Fluency Test (WF), and Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSS). We used survey linear regression to estimate the overall, sex-specific, and cancer site-specific [i.e., cervix, breast, uterus, and prostate] adjusted associations between cancer history and neurocognitive test performance at V1 and changes from V1 to V2.</p><p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>At V1, a history of cancer (6.4%) versus no history of cancer (93.6%) was associated with higher WF scores (β&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.14, SE&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.06; p&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.03) and global cognition (β&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.09, SE&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.04; p&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.04). Among women, a history of cervical cancer predicted decreases in SEVLT-Recall scores (β&thinsp;=&thinsp;-0.31, SE&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.13; p&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.02) from V1 to V2, and among men, a history of prostate cancer was associated with higher V1 WF scores (β&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.29, SE&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.12; p&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.02) and predicted increases in SEVLT-Sum (β&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.46, SE&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.22; p&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.04) from V1 to V2.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>Among women, a history of cervical cancer was associated with 7-year memory decline, which may reflect the impacts of systemic cancer therapies. Among men, however, a history of prostate cancer was associated with improvements in cognitive performance, perhaps due in part to engaging in health promoting behaviors following cancer.</p>

Year of Publication
2023
Journal
Cancer Med
Volume
12
Issue
10
Number of Pages
11860-11870
Date Published
2023 May
ISSN Number
2045-7634
DOI
10.1002/cam4.5863
Alternate Journal
Cancer Med
PMID
36999972
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