Sault Ste. Marie researcher studying how to predict, prevent ‘chemo brain’

CBC news

Nirosha Murugan, at Algoma University, provided $187,870 from New Frontiers in Research Fund for study.

A northern researcher is looking at how to predict and prevent a side effect of cancer treatment called ‘chemo brain.’Symptoms include brain fog, short-term memory loss, difficulty concentrating, difficulty multitasking, confusion, a short attention span and problems finding the right words.”It is quite common to the type of cancer treatment, for example chemotherapy or radiation, that an individual might be exposed to,” said Nirosha Murugan, a professor at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, adding that some people are more affected than others.Typically physicians will treat symptoms as they develop.Murugan has been granted almost $187,870 from the New Frontiers in Research Fund to further study chemo brain. She is developing a low-level light tool that can read brain activity and help diagnose chemo brain before it occurs, and thereby start earlier on treatment.Murugan says subjects who are part of the study will sit inside a dark box. The team will then measure brain patterns and biophotons (light emissions) from the brain.”Sort of like reading the mind of the mind,” she said.”Our hope is to diagnose or pick up or detect the chemo brain phenomenon before the patient actually experiences it,” she said.

“The goal here is if we can pick it up and kind of detect that, OK, the brain is sort of changing towards chemo brain or cognitive impairments associated with chemo brain that maybe we can intervene and kind of mitigate that process from occurring in the first place.”

The study will require about 200 participants, who will be followed over two years of the study.

Murugan says the application of the research could extend beyond ‘chemo brain.’

“The idea is if we can develop this tool and technology in ‘chemo brain’, we are trying to move this over to Alzheimer’s, dementia, can be used for schizophrenia, all sorts of neuro-psychiatric issues.”

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