Cancéropôle Nord-Ouest's Cancer and Cognition Platform

Norman research consortium on cognitive disorders induced by cancer treatmentss

Contact

The team

• Department Head: Pr Florence JOLY
  
• Head of clinical expertise: Florence Joly (Inserm U1086), medical oncologist
• In charge of neuropsychological expertise: Bénédicte Giffard (Inserm U1077), senior lecturer in neuropsychology; Marie Lange (Inserm U1086), neuropsychologist
• Head of pre-clinical expertise: Hélène Castel (Inserm U1239), research biologist
• Biostatistics expert: Sophie Lefèvre-Arbogast (Inserm U1086), biostatistician
• Platform coordination/operation: Laure Tron (Inserm U1086), project manager

• Hosting post-docs, PhD students and interns
• Involvement of engineers and technicians

Activities

Cognitive impairment is one of the main complaints of patients during or after cancer treatment. Patients mainly complain of difficulties in remembering, thinking, concentrating, or finding the words to express themselves - symptoms grouped together under the term " chemofog " or " chemobrain ". These disorders are generally mild to moderate, but can have a major impact on patients' quality of life, their return to work, and even their independence (particularly in the case of older subjects). Cognitive disorders induced by cancer treatments are usually transient, but in some patients they may persist for several years after the end of treatment.

The Cancer and Cognition platform, created in 2015, grew out of a Normandy research consortium interested in this issue since 2007, bringing together members of several Inserm units (U1086, U1077, U1239). It is coordinated by Pr Florence Joly.

Since 2016, the platform has been accredited by the Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer.

The platform's main objective is toassess the impact of cancer (excluding CNS) and its treatments on cognitive function, through integrated, multidisciplinary and translational research, from clinical patients to animal models, using neuropsychology and neuroimaging. The platform's mission is to set up studies to identify the presence of cognitive disorders in patients treated for cancer (depending on cancer location, population specificities, type of treatment, etc.), to better understand the underlying mechanisms (animal models, neuroimaging, biomarker studies) and to initiate intervention studies to help patients with cognitive disorders. It offers its skills and services to academic and industrial teams wishing to initiate research in this field.

To carry out these studies and support research in the field, the platform relies on 4 complementary areas of expertise:

• clinical expertise,
• preclinical expertise (animal models and biomarker analysis),
• neuropsychological expertise,
• and finally, bio-statistical expertise.

Partners