Interleukin 1 level, cognitive performance, and severity of depressive symptoms in patients treated with systemic anticancer therapy: a prospective study

AIM: To assess the relationship between cognitive functions, severity of depressive symptoms, and expression of interleukin 1 (IL)-1 in patients treated with systemic anticancer therapy. METHODS: This prospective study, conducted in 2017-2018, involved 55 patients (56% men) subjected to systemic anticancer therapy. Forty-one patients had lung cancer (74.55%) and 14 had breast cancer (25.45%). Patients’ mean age was 55.5 ± 9.3 (from 26 to 65 years). Neuropsychological tests were conducted twice: on the day of qualifying for the study before the start of chemotherapy and after the end of the full treatment cycle. We assessed patients’ cognitive functioning using Trail Making Test A&B (TMT), Stroop Color-Word Interference Test, and Verbal Fluency Test (VFT). Severity of depressive symptoms and the level of IL-1 expression were also examined. RESULTS: After chemotherapy, patients had significantly lower expression of IL-1α (P < 0.005) and IL-1β (P < 0.001) at the protein level. They also had lower severity of depressive symptoms (borderline significant, P = 0.063), needed more time to complete the first part of the Stroop test (P = 0.03), and had worse score on the first part of the VFT (P < 0.001). Before chemotherapy there was a significant negative correlation between IL-1β expression and the speed at which the first part of the TMT test was completed. CONCLUSIONS: The severity of depressive symptoms after chemotherapy was lower than before chemotherapy. Patients’ cognitive performance did not significantly deteriorate after chemotherapy, except the performance at the first part of the Stroop test and the first part of the VFT.