Longitudinal Trajectories of Memory Performance in Patients with Early-Stage Breast Cancer.

Background: While breast cancer and its treatments may affect cognition, the longitudinal trajectories of cognition among those receiving differing cancer treatment types remain poorly understood. Prior research suggests hippocampal-prefrontal cortex network integrity may influence cognition, although how this network predicts performance over time remains unclear.

Methods: We conducted a prospective trial including 69 patients with early-stage breast cancer receiving adjuvant therapy and 12 controls.

Ethnic differences in response to directive vs. non-directive brief intervention for subsyndromal depression.

Objective: Analog research suggests that directive interventions might increase treatment engagement for non-symptomatic Asian American (AA) students; however, no studies have assessed whether directiveness improves therapy processes or clinical outcomes for AAs with mental health symptoms. This study tested the comparative efficacy of brief directive vs. non-directive intervention for AAs and European Americans (EAs) with subsyndromal depression.

Coronary artery disease is associated with cognitive decline independent of changes on magnetic resonance imaging in cognitively normal elderly adults.

Objectives: To examine in cognitively normal elderly adults whether vascular factors predict cognitive decline and whether these associations are mediated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of subclinical vascular brain injury.

Design: Prospective multisite longitudinal study of subcortical ischemic vascular diseases.

Setting: Memory and aging centers in California.

Let's inhibit our excitement: the relationships between Stroop, behavioral disinhibition, and the frontal lobes.

Objective: The Stroop (Stroop, 1935) is a frequently used neuropsychological test, with poor performance typically interpreted as indicative of disinhibition and frontal lobe damage. This study tested those interpretations by examining relationships between Stroop performance, behavioral disinhibition, and frontal lobe atrophy.

Method: Participants were 112 patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, recruited through UCSF's Memory and Aging Center.

Cancer as a risk factor for long-term cognitive deficits and dementia.

Previous studies have shown that cancer survivors frequently experience short-term cognitive deficits, but it is unknown how long these deficits last or whether they worsen over time. Using a co-twin control design, the cognitive function of 702 cancer survivors aged 65 years and older was compared with that of their cancer-free twins. Dementia rates were also compared in 486 of the twin pairs discordant for cancer.

Quality of life of breast cancer survivors after a recurrence: a follow-up study.

Previous studies on breast cancer recurrence provide a mixed picture of the quality of life of women following a recurrence. To clarify the picture, the present study addresses some previous methodological concerns by offering a multidimensional assessment with follow-up, a matched comparison group of disease-free survivors, and a closer look at the nature of recurrence (local versus metastatic). Fifty-Four of 817 women who participated in an earlier study experienced a recurrence at follow-up, and are compared to a matched sample of 54 women who remained disease-free.