Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Sep;12(6):612-9.
doi: 10.1002/pon.742.

The relationship of APOE genotype to neuropsychological performance in long-term cancer survivors treated with standard dose chemotherapy

Tim A Ahles  1 , Andrew J Saykin, Walter W Noll, Charlotte T Furstenberg, Stephen Guerin, Bernard Cole, Leila A Mott
Affiliations

The relationship of APOE genotype to neuropsychological performance in long-term cancer survivors treated with standard dose chemotherapy

Tim A Ahles et al. Psychooncology. 2003 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to compare the neuropsychological performance of long-term survivors of breast cancer and lymphoma treated with standard dose chemotherapy who carried the epsilon 4 allele of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene to those who carry other APOE alleles.

Patients and methods: Long-term survivors (mean=8.8+/-4.3 years post-treatment) of breast cancer (N=51, age=55.9+/-8.8) or lymphoma (N=29, age=55.8+/-11.6) who had been treated with standard-dose chemotherapy completed a standardized battery of neuropsychological and psychological tests. Survivors were also classified into two groups based on the presence (N=17) or absence (N=63) of at least one epsilon 4 allele of APOE.

Results: Analysis of covariance, controlling for age, gender, education, diagnosis, and WRAT-3 reading subtest (a proxy measure of baseline IQ), indicated that survivors with at least one epsilon 4 allele scored significantly lower in the visual memory (p<0.03) and the spatial ability (p<0.05) domains and tended to score lower in the psychomotor functioning (p<0.08) domain as compared to survivors who did not carry an epsilon 4 allele. No group differences were found on depression, anxiety, or fatigue.

Conclusions: The results of this study provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that the epsilon 4 allele of APOE may be a potential genetic marker for increased vulnerability to chemotherapy-induced cognitive decline.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources