Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective: To explore the effect of chemotherapy on cognitive function in gastrointestinal tumor patients. Methods: 87 gastrointestinal tumor patients were collected. Cognitive functions of all patients were evaluated with 5 neuropsychological tests which include semantic fluency, Trail Making A, digit span, symbol coding, Stroop task before chemotherapy and 6 months after the completion of all chemotherapy. 60 normal subjects were collected as controls. Results: ①Before chemotherapy, there were no significant difference in cognitive functions between gastrointestinal tumor group and normal group(t=-1.28~0.27，all P>0.05). ②After chemotherapy, the performances of Trail Making A, digit span, symbol coding, Stroop color, Stroop color-word interference in gastrointestinal tumor group were decreased(t=4.66~7.17，all P<0.01). The performances of Trail Making A, digit span, symbol coding, Stroop color, Stroop color-word interference in gastrointestinal tumor group after chemotherapy were also poorer than those in normal group(t=2.59~3.35，P<0.05 or P<0.01). Conclusion: Chemotherapy may impair cognitive function for gastrointestinal tumor patients.

Chemotherapy; Gastrointestinal tumor; Cognitive function