Cognitive Function in Adults With Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treated With Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review.

Only ten articles from eight independent studies were included, and many findings came from a single study. Studies used different ways to measure cognition, including patient-reported questionnaires, screening tests, neuropsychological batteries, and neuroimaging, so the results are hard to compare. The review included some studies with myelodysplastic syndromes and mixed hematological diagnoses, so the findings may not apply only to acute myeloid leukemia. Some included studies had participants receiving supportive care or immunomodulatory agents without chemotherapy, so not all findings are from chemotherapy alone. The studies that focused on cancer-related cognitive impairment used younger samples than the typical age at acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis, so there is less information about older adults. No gray literature was searched, so unpublished reports and conference proceedings may have been missed. Quality assessment did not lead to exclusion of articles, so low-quality studies could influence the synthesis. The included studies were observational or mixed designs, so they cannot show that chemotherapy caused cognitive change or that cognitive impairment caused worse outcomes.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not read this as evidence that chemotherapy causes cognitive decline. The review found stable cognition in longitudinal studies, and the cross-sectional impairment figure after chemotherapy was not a measured change.