Tamoxifen Effects for Cognition and Language in Breast Cancer Grant uri icon

abstract

  • The overarching goal of this project is to advance understanding of how cognitive and language functions are affected by adjuvant endocrine treatment in women with breast cancer (BCS). Cognitive decline can lead to deterioration of functional status and independence and negatively impact personal relationships, ability to maintain employment, and return to work. Changes in language functions are less known but have been anecdotally reported and are critical for communication, work, maintaining relationships, and psychosocial well-being. For this initial phase, our target population is women diagnosed with estrogen positive (ER+) tumors and prescribed the adjuvant endocrine treatment - Tamoxifen following surgery and/or radiation treatment but not receiving chemotherapy. The aims of the study are: (1) chart cognitive change from diagnosis and pre-surgery to one month after beginning Tamoxifen; and (2) chart language change during the same time period. To address Aim 1, we will administer ambulatory cognitive tasks using ecological momentary assessment and following a measurement-burst design repeated at the two time periods. This design provides multiple time points to examine processes that unfold within individuals over short-time periods to capture variability (intra-individual variability) and over longer time periods to capture change (intra-individual change). To address Aim 2, narrative discourse samples will be collected from participants at each time period and core lexicon analysis completed. Core lexicon is a novel method for quantifying lexical items required to produce semantically meaningful and coherent discourse and has been shown to be sensitive to age differences, cognitive impairment, and language impairment.

date/time interval

  • February 2019 - February 2020