Memory Impairment And Its Association With Quality Of Life In Patients Of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma After Radiotherapy

Purpose: Radiotherapy is the most important treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma and can effectively prolong the survival period of the patients.At present,more and more studies have found that cognitive dysfunction occurs after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma,and memory is one of the most important cognitive functions.Its change characteristics after radiotherapy are not yet clear,and whether it has an impact on the quality of life of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is not reported.The aim of this study is to explore the characteristics of prospective memory(PM)and retrospective memory(RM)and their relationship with quality of life in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after precise radiotherapy.Methods and Materials: Fifty-six qualified patients with newly diagnosed NPC treated with primary IMRT were selected,and subjected to a number of neuropsychological tests,including mini-mental state examination(MMSE),PM,RM memory questionnaires,before and after IMRT.The FACT-H&N were made use of estimating the Qo L in NPC patients.Compared the differences of MMSE,PM,RM and FACT-H&N before and after radiotherapy,and analyzed the correlation between PM,RM and Qo L after radiotherapy.Results: The results of MMSE in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma before and after radiotherapy were 27.84 ± 2.03 and 27.66 ± 2.05 respectively,with no significant difference(Z =-1.91,P> 0.05).Compared with those before radiotherapy,the scores of RM in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma was 13.52 ± 2.68 after radiotherapy and 10.59 ± 2.23 before radiotherapy.The difference was statistically significant(t = 11.86,P<0.05).The PM scores before and after radiotherapy were10.45 ± 2.16 and 11.88 ± 2.56,(t=6.40,P<0.05).Before radiotherapy,the FACT-H&N of nasopharyngeal carcinoma was 106.91 ± 9.10 and 89.14 ± 9.25 after radiotherapy.The difference was also statistically significant(t =-13.05,P<0.05).There was a correlation between RM,PM scores and FACT-H&N after nasopharyngeal carcinoma radiotherapy(r=-0.38,-0.60,P<0.05 respectively).Conclusions: The results of our study indicated that RT could have deleterious effects on PM,RM,that may be one of the important factors affecting the quality of life in patients with NPC.