Timing and Specificity of the Cognitive Changes Induced by Interleukin-2 and Interferon-α Treatments in Cancer Patients
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Neuropsychological changes develop in patients treated by cytokine immunotherapy with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha). However, the time course of appearance of these effects remains unclear, and their precise nature is still incompletely characterized. The objective of this study was to assess and characterize the early cognitive changes induced by IL-2 and IFN-alpha in cancer patients at the end of the first week of treatment and to investigate the subsequent evolution of these changes. METHODS: The study was conducted in 47 cancer patients who received subcutaneous IL-2, administered alone (N = 17) or with IFN-alpha (N = 7), or IFN-alpha alone, administered subcutaneously at low doses (N = 7) or intravenously at high doses (N = 16). An automated battery of neuropsychological tests (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery) was used to measure reaction time, spatial working memory, and planning tasks. Cognitive tests were performed before treatment (day 1) and after 5 days (day 5) and 1 month of treatment. RESULTS: On day 5, patients treated with IL-2 alone had impaired spatial working memory and lower accuracy of planning abilities. In contrast, patients treated with IFN-alpha did not show any impairment in performance accuracy in these tasks but showed longer latencies in the test of reaction time. Most of these early alterations persisted at the end of the first month of treatment without any obvious sign of worsening. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the existence of early differential neuropsychological changes in patients treated with IL-2 and IFN-alpha.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Inflammatory cytokines can induce sickness behaviors, which are strikingly similar to somatic and behavioral symptoms of depression.
“inflammatory cytokines can induce sickness behaviors is highly relevant for depression since these behaviors are strikingly similar to somatic and behavioral symptoms of depression”
From From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder: A social signal transduction theory of depression. (2014) · cites this paper as Capuron, Ravaud, & Dantzer, 2001
The increase in response latency was especially pronounced when the task involved higher attentional resources.
“Similarly, IFN-α treatment was associated with an increase in response latency on a reaction time task among cancer patients, especially when the cytokine was administered intravenously and when the task involved higher attentional resources (Capuron et al., 2001).”
From The role of inflammation in core features of depression: Insights from paradigms using exogenously-induced inflammation. (2018) · cites this paper as Capuron et al., 2001
IFN-α treatment was associated with an increase in response latency on a reaction time task among cancer patients.
“Similarly, IFN-α treatment was associated with an increase in response latency on a reaction time task among cancer patients, especially when the cytokine was administered intravenously and when the task involved higher attentional resources (Capuron et al., 2001).”
From The role of inflammation in core features of depression: Insights from paradigms using exogenously-induced inflammation. (2018) · cites this paper as Capuron et al., 2001
The increase in response latency was especially pronounced when the cytokine was administered intravenously.
“Similarly, IFN-α treatment was associated with an increase in response latency on a reaction time task among cancer patients, especially when the cytokine was administered intravenously and when the task involved higher attentional resources (Capuron et al., 2001).”
From The role of inflammation in core features of depression: Insights from paradigms using exogenously-induced inflammation. (2018) · cites this paper as Capuron et al., 2001
The fatigue of depression, often a residual symptom of SSRI therapy, is a prominent feature of cytokine-induced depression and may represent cytokine effects on basal ganglia and dopamine function.
“The fatigue of depression, which is often a residual symptom of SSRI therapy, is a prominent feature of cytokine-induced depression, and may represent cytokine effects on the basal ganglia and dopamine (DA) function (Capuron et al., 2001, Majer et al., 2008, Capuron et al., 2009).”
From Inflammatory cytokines in depression: neurobiological mechanisms and therapeutic implications (2013) · cites this paper as Capuron et al., 2001
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 50 · Cited by 148
- Authors
- Capuron, L., Ravaud, A., & Dantzer, R.
- Affiliations
- Inserm (FR)
- Emory University (US)
- Venue
- Psychosomatic Medicine
- Published
- 2001-05
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 376-386
- ISSN
- 0033-3174 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2005149888
- Cited by
- 148
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 5.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychosomatic Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Cancer-related cognitive impairment studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine › Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders
- Keywords
- interleukin-2, interferon-alpha, cytokine therapy, cancer patients, cognitive impairment, neuropsychological outcomes, spatial working memory, reaction time, planning skills, CAMCOG
- MeSH terms
- Adjuvants, Immunologic, Adult, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Neuropsychological Tests, Sensitivity and Specificity, Space Perception, Time Factors, Interferon-alpha, Interferon-beta
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
