The relationship of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and pretreatment cancer-related cognitive impairment in women with breast cancer: A post hoc analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

Authors

Amanda L Gentry, Susan M Sereika, Kirk I Erickson, Maura K McCall, Sarah M Belcher, Meredith C Cummings, Myeong-Ga Cho, Eliza Brufsky, Margaret Q Rosenzweig, Catherine M Bender

Published in

Cancer. Volume 132. Issue 14. Pages e70506. Jul 15, 2026.

Abstract

Up to 30% of women with breast cancer experience cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) even before they receive treatment. The authors conducted a post hoc analysis to examine the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and CRCI in treatment-naive postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer.
The Exercise Program in Cancer and Cognition was a single-blind, 6-month, randomized controlled trial evaluating moderate-intensity aerobic exercise versus usual activity on neurocognitive function. By using baseline data from treatment-naive participants (n = 100), neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage was assessed using the Area Deprivation Index (national percentile). Cognitive function was measured using composite domain scores. Associations were examined using correlation and linear regression analyses, adjusting for potential covariates/confounders.
On average, participants were aged 63 years and had 16 years of education. Greater neighborhood disadvantage was associated with poorer cognitive function in domains of verbal memory (p = .032), working memory (p = .043), mental flexibility (p = .049), and processing speed (p = .026). In adjusted analyses, working memory remained associated with the Area Deprivation Index (p = .019) with adjustment for age; however, associations with the Area Deprivation Index were attenuated for verbal memory after adjustment for education (p = .067), for mental flexibility after adjustment for depressive symptoms (p = .175), and for processing speed after adjustment for age and body mass index (p = .065).
Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage may contribute to cognitive vulnerability before cancer treatment. However, these findings suggest that years of education and depressive symptoms should be factored into the consideration of neighborhood-level factors when assessing CRCI risk among women with breast cancer (Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02793921).

PMID:
42421660
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 09 Jul 2026.

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