Kathy Windmoeller is an American Cancer Society volunteer, a retired cancer cytologist, a grandmother of five and a breast cancer survivor.

She received chemotherapy as part of her treatment for the cancer, and while the cancer was gone, some new challenges began.

"I did develop a lot of memory issues. And not just the every day, oh I forgot, where'd I put my car keys. I'd forget that I needed to be somewhere at a certain time. and a little more major issues," Windmoeller said. To make up for the problems, she'd write herself notes and ask other people to remind her of things she might be likely to forget.

Oncologist Dr. Michael Perry has had women coming to him for years talking about these types of issues after chemotherapy.

"For the last 15-20 years they've been saying, 'after the chemotherapy I'm not as sharp as I was before. I have trouble balancing my checkbook. I have trouble remembering tasks I have to do in the right order,'" Perry said. In response to these types of concerns, Dr. Stephanie Reid-Arndt, with the help of Perry, conducted a study to verify these concerns.

"It's the cancer survivors that brought our attention to this. Since cancer treatments have gotten so good and people are living for a lot longer now, we're really starting to think of cancer as a chronic condition, and looking into these kinds of thing," Reid-Arndt said.

She met with a sample group of women who had breast cancer and received chemotherapy treatments several times, asking them about whether they were experiencing the same effects. She specifically looked into neuropsychological functioning, cognitive difficulties, fatigue, depression, the social support they looked for,  and quality of life experienced by breast cancer survivors.

The findings of the study verified some previous studies about the effects of chemotherapy, but specifically showed that self-reports of memory concentration did affect quality of life. Dr. Reid-Arndt said there is reason to be hopeful- both that things will get better over time and that researchers may be able to find some ways to help.

Reid-Arndt is currently researching whether exercise could have an impact as a potential solution. One of the possibilities she's trying out is tai chi- whether women could have these effects improve through the use of that particular form of exercise. Windmoeller said she participated in the study, but is not sure whether tai chi helped her or not.

Windmoeller says that along with making notes and working to remember things on her own, she hosts and participates in a support group where women empathize with one another about the problems they have. She says they all seem to be going through similar issues.

Windmoeller hosts the meetings each week for breast cancer survivors and women currently going through breast cancer treatments. To find out how to attend a meeting, you can email her at k.windmoeller@mchsi.com.