Overview

• A pilot MRI study at Imperial College London identified significant reductions in gray matter volume and surface area in frontal, parietal and cingulate regions of breast cancer patients experiencing chemobrain.
• Chemotherapy-associated cognitive impairment affects about one third of breast cancer survivors and some persistent memory deficits mirror patterns seen in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular cognitive impairment.
• City College of New York rat experiments showed that doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide treatment elevates DNMT3a expression and reshapes DNA methylation in the prefrontal cortex.
• Aligned human and animal findings reveal shared neurodegenerative pathways and validate a biological basis for long-term chemotherapy-linked cognitive decline.
• Researchers point to timing-sensitive interventions—such as senolytic clearance of senescent cells—and development of DNMT and HDAC inhibitors as promising strategies to prevent or reverse chemobrain.