방사선의학 웹진

바로가기  >

Abstract

A considerable number of patients with breast cancer complain of cognitive impairment after chemotherapy. In this study, we showed that donepezil enhanced memory function and increased brain glucose metabolism in a rat model of cognitive impairment after chemotherapy using behavioral analysis and positron emission tomography (PET). We found that chemotherapy affected spatial learning ability, reference memory, and working memory and that donepezil improved these cognitive impairments. According to PET analysis, chemotherapy reduced glucose metabolism in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, and donepezil increased glucose metabolism in the bilateral frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and hippocampus. Reduced glucose metabolism was more prominent after treatment with doxorubicin than cyclophosphamide. Our results demonstrated the neural mechanisms for cognitive impairment after chemotherapy and show that cognition was improved after donepezil intervention using both behavioral and imaging methods. Our results suggested that donepezil can be employed clinically for the treatment of cognitive deficits after chemotherapy. 

Author information​

Lim I1, Joung HY2, Yu AR3, Shim I2, Kim JS3.

1Division of RI-Convergence Research, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul 01812, Republic of Korea; Department of Nuclear Medicine, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Seoul 01812, Republic of Korea.

2Department of Science in Korean Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea.

3Division of RI-Convergence Research, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul 01812, Republic of Korea.