Project 445998

Based on the estimates of the WHO, one in 5 men and one in 6 women worldwide will develop cancer during their lifetime, and by the end of 2020 there will be over 70 million cancer survivors worldwide. While novel treatment regimens turn cancer into a chronic diseases, maintaining the quality of life of cancer survivors becomes of paramount importance. Over the past decade, the more and more emphasis is being put towards the cognitive health of cancer patients. Several scoping reviews brought previously overlooked issue of cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) to the forefront of oncology. Several recent reviews state that cognitive impairment observed in cancer patients can be related to the direct effects of cancer itself and/or the cancer treatments - radiation therapy and chemotherapy, and call for thorough preclinical animal-based studies to better characterize the molecular mechanisms and potential biomarkers of CRCI. We have analyzed the effects of cancer and cancer therapies on the brain. Building upon our expertise, we will look at the cancer-associated cognitive impairment phenomenon through a sex lens. Pending the outcomes of this first-ever in-depth preclinical model-based study, the future translational approaches may be designed to interrogate the nature of CRCI effects in human CNS. In the long term, understanding the molecular basis of cancer and cancer therapies effects in the brain of males and females may contribute to the development of novel sex-specific diagnostic, prevention and treatment regimens and sex-specific protection guidelines.