Chemotherapy Can Be More Toxic To Brain Cells Than To Cancer Cells And May Cause Brain Damage

Drugs used to treat cancer may damage normal, healthy brain cells more than the cancer cells they are meant to target. A study shows that clinical doses of chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat many common cancers cause long-term damage to the brains of mice by killing neural stem cells and oligodendrocytes, which produce the myelin insulation needed for normal neuronal function, and by impairing neural stem cell division. These results might explain the adverse neurological side effects - including reduction in cognitive abilities - observed in some cancer patients treated with chemotherapy.