What a difference a year makes - check out these links for a review of some of the developments and advancements in cancer and cancer treatment over the past year: 

• This list mentions the nicotine patch among other great scientific advancements
• And Cancer.net breaks down their list into categories like standards of care, prevention & screening, and various cancers
• The Sun Protection Group list highlights the top developments in the protection of our largest organ (skin - in case you don’t know)

Fixmychemobrain is a real-life twitter user name and it expresses the way many patients feel after going through chemo. Their minds are foggy, their memory is bad, they forget names, and have trouble concentrating.  It is not just in their head, studies are showing that the chemicals used in chemotherapy may have a detrimental effect on brain cells and nerves (note: all chemo-therapies differ). This condition is now being recognized as chemo brain.

Admitting there is a problem is the first step (talking about the doctors here, not the patients). The next steps are to visit some helpful websites like Health After Chemo and Cancer.Org. Educate yourself and more importantly, educate those around you, many caregivers and family members think that once treatment is over, cancer is over.  Some of the effects of chemo can last for a year or more after treatment. The more people you have on your team, the better. Stay informed, ask for help, and you may not have to carry a chalkboard around your neck (like post-stroke Anthony Hopkins in Legends of the Fall) forever.

The National Cancer Institute website says that, “Cancer patients are at great risk for developing insomnia and disorders of the sleep-wake cycle.” It is extremely important to address sleep disorders because, “Anxiety and depression, common psychological responses to the diagnosis of cancer, cancer treatment, and hospitalization, are highly correlated with insomnia.”

We can’t know which comes first, the insomnia or the anxiety and depression. Or can we? Recent findings, like the study featured in this TIME magazine article, show that dreaming (usually only done in stages of REM sleep) has a helpful emotional processing function that helps us cope with our waking life.  If we are not getting enough sleep, we don’t enter REM sleep and can’t benefit from this effect. The price we pay in our waking life, according to the article, is irritability, depression, and anxiety. Lack of sleep can also have and effect on pain tolerance, the ability to make decisions and read emotions in others. All of those side effects are things that can make cancer treatment near unbearable and even worse, have lasting psychological repercussions. Many patients continue to suffer from anxiety and depression long after their physical treatment is finished. Sleep problems could very well be a factor.

Sleep dissorders can be prevented and they are something that you should discuss with your doctor as soon as possible.