Jane Brody, columnist for the New York Times, has reviewed two new books on Chemo Brain, one of which was co-authored by a Health After Chemo member, Idelle Davidson.

Article excerpt:

"In those affected — and doctors at this point have no way of predicting who might be — it is as if the cognitive portion of the brain were barely functioning. Symptoms are most apparent to high-functioning individuals used to juggling the demands of complex jobs or demanding home lives, or both.

The chemo brain phenomenon was described two years ago in The New York Times by Jane Gross, who noted that after years of medical denial, 'there is now widespread acknowledgment that patients with cognitive symptoms are not imagining things.'"

I would not put much stock in Ms. Brody's comments, since she obviously did not "do her homework" on this topic, suggesting that the phenomenon suddenly gained recognition as recently as only two years ago."  Journal articles"  have appeared, as well as considerable research on the DNA damage to brain cells and the shrinkage of brain matter, for the past five years.

Click here for the review. It is clearly not an endorsement of Ms Brody's commentary, but helps to illustrate why cancer patients are easily confounded about what to do and whom to trust.