Does chemotherapy lead to a visual search deficit? T Horowitz |
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National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, MD, United States
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| There is now evidence that chemotherapy leads to persistent cognitive deficits. A recent meta-analysis of 17 studies concluded that chemotherapy resulted in persistent visuospatial, but not attentional deficits [Jim, H. S., et al, 2012, Journal of Clinical Oncology, 30(29), 3578-3587], relative to breast cancer patients not treated with chemotherapy. However, their sample of 43 “attentional” tests included only 16 valid attention tests. I reclassified their measures, identifying 11 studies reporting 5 measures with visual search components: letter cancellation (D2 test, Ruff 2 & 7); Trail Making Task (TMT) versions A and B; spatial configuration search (FEPSY Visual Search). A new meta-analysis of this set yielded a summary effect size estimate of -0.058 (95% CI: -0.143, 0.027; p = .18; negative indicating chemotherapy deficit). I then analyzed the TMT tasks separately, in order of increasing visual search relevance. Effect sizes were -0.106 (-0.256, 0.0449; p. = .17) for TMT B, and -0.145 (-0.277, -0.012; p = .03) for TMT A. This suggests that chemotherapy leads to persistent deficits in visual search. However, this conclusion is based on coarse-grained neuropsychological tests. There is a critical need for studies on the effects of chemotherapy using more sensitive tests of visual search and attention. |
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