Source
Service de neurologie, centre hospitalier de la Rochelle, Poitiers, France.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate secondary effects on cognitive functions as memory and attention impairments in men treated by androgen suppression for cancer of prostate.
MATERIAL AND METHODS:
A prospective study on men treated with luteinizing hormone-realising hormone analogues (LH-RH analogues) for cancer of prostate was designed. Eighteen men were evaluated with cognitive tests as Mini Mental State (MMS), memory evaluation (Grober-Buschke, Rey Test), attention and executive test (Trail Making Test and Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale [MADRS]) before beginning androgen suppression. Base line pretreatment assessments of every patient were compared with similar tests after six and 12 months of hormone therapy.
RESULTS:
On 18 patients, 14 were eligible with pretreatment-median PSA of 22ng/ml (13-659), testosterone of 477ng/dl (398-583), which decreased to 1 and 37ng/dl, respectively. Visual-memory test (Rey test) was significantly improved at M6 (p: 0,001) and M12 (p: 0,02) as was the inversed number-memory test (WAIS) after M6 of androgen suppression and (p: 0,03).
CONCLUSION:
After 12 months of androgen suppression, global cognitive performances were preserved. Our results failed to observe impairment of cognitive function. This deserves more important prospective study.