Up to 80% of people who receive chemotherapy experience cancer-related cognitive impairment, which\u00a0most commonly involves mild-to-moderate changes such as difficulty paying attention, memory\u00a0lapses, and\u00a0struggles\u00a0with multitasking.\u00a0A new Phase II trial found that exercise and\u00a0low-dose\u00a0ibuprofen\u00a0can\u00a0each help\u00a0to lessen\u00a0cognitive problems\u00a0and help protect patients’ cognitive function.\u00a0The findings are published\u00a0by\u00a0Wiley\u00a0online in\u00a0CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.<\/p>\n
Both exercise and anti-inflammatory<\/a> medications\u00a0can improve cognitive outcomes in a variety of disease settings,\u00a0but\u00a0little is known in the setting of\u00a0cancer.\u00a0Because\u00a0exercise and\u00a0ibuprofen\u00a0both\u00a0reduce inflammation<\/a>\u00a0through different pathways, their combined use could potentially have additive or synergistic effects on lessening cancer-related cognitive impairment.\u00a0<\/p>\n To investigate, researchers randomized 86 patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy\u00a0who\u00a0reported\u00a0cognitive problems\u00a0to\u00a0four study arms for six weeks: Exercise for Cancer Patients (EXCAP) +\u00a0low-dose\u00a0ibuprofen, EXCAP + Placebo,\u00a0low-dose\u00a0ibuprofen\u00a0only, and Placebo only.\u00a0(EXCAP is a home-based, low-to-moderate\u00a0intensity, progressive\u00a0walking\u00a0and resistance exercise\u00a0prescription.)\u00a0<\/p>\n After six weeks, participants\u00a0in the EXCAP + Placebo group\u00a0demonstrated\u00a0significantly better attention performance compared\u00a0with\u00a0the Placebo group. The\u00a0ibuprofen-only group\u00a0also\u00a0showed greater improvements than the Placebo group.\u00a0Compared with Placebo participants, both EXCAP +\u00a0ibuprofen\u00a0and EXCAP + Placebo participants\u00a0exhibited\u00a0improvements on\u00a0a measure that assessed\u00a0how often friends, family, or coworkers have commented on or noticed the patient’s cognitive difficulties.\u00a0However, the\u00a0ibuprofen\u00a0group\u00a0showed\u00a0less improvement\u00a0on\u00a0a\u00a0measure of short-term verbal memory\u00a0compared\u00a0with\u00a0those not\u00a0on\u00a0ibuprofen, which needs to be further investigated.<\/p>\n The findings suggest that exercise can positively\u00a0impact\u00a0cognitive function in\u00a0individuals\u00a0receiving chemotherapy.\u00a0Ibuprofen\u00a0may also help improve some cognitive functions, but\u00a0perhaps to\u00a0a lesser (and less consistent) extent. Phase III trials are needed to explore\u00a0these\u00a0findings further.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n We are encouraged by the findings of this trial\u00a0that suggest\u00a0possible benefits\u00a0of\u00a0both\u00a0interventions for some cognitive domains.\u00a0Clearly, we\u00a0saw a more pronounced effect\u00a0with exercise, which is\u00a0notable considering the\u00a0multiple health benefits\u00a0of exercise for\u00a0cancer survivors. This is one of the first studies\u00a0specifically designed\u00a0to assess\u00a0these interventions for\u00a0cancer-related cognitive impairment\u00a0during chemotherapy in patients with multiple diseases using both performance-based cognitive assessments and patient-reported outcomes.”<\/p>\n
Michelle C.\u00a0Janelsins, PhD, MPH, lead author, University of Rochester and the Wilmot Cancer Institute<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Dr.\u00a0Janelsins\u00a0noted that future studies should consider\u00a0modifying\u00a0the\u00a0duration and dose of both the exercise and low-dose\u00a0ibuprofen\u00a0interventions.\u00a0She also stressed that\u00a0any intervention for cognitive problems should be discussed with a health\u00a0care provider to ensure there are no contraindications.<\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n Journal reference:<\/p>\n Janelsins, M. C., et al. (2026). Phase 2 trial of exercise and low\u2010dose ibuprofen for cancer\u2010related cognitive impairment in patients receiving chemotherapy.\u00a0Cancer,\u00a0132(8). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/cncr.70323.\u00a0https:\/\/acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/cncr.70323<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Up to 80% of people who receive chemotherapy experience cancer-related cognitive impairment, which\u00a0most commonly involves mild-to-moderate changes such…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3032,2534,2535,13449,3248,134,62330,13346,111,139,69,27041],"class_list":{"0":"post-388998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-anti-inflammatory","9":"tag-cancer","10":"tag-chemotherapy","11":"tag-cognitive-function","12":"tag-exercise","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-ibuprofen","15":"tag-inflammation","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-placebo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
<\/p>\n