The aim of our study was to assess the neural correlates of
‘‘breast cancer experience’’. More precisely we were interested in
hippocampus volume and potential episodic autobiographical
memory deficit associated to a ‘‘breast cancer experience’’. 1) We
thus studied remitted breast cancer patients that had a ‘‘standard
cancer treatment’’ and matched controls, 2) We measured their
full hippocampi volume and their posterior hippocampus volume,
3) We assessed episodic autobiographical memory and 4) We
looked at the regression analysis of the access to episodic
autobiographical memory with the group and the volume of the
posterior hippocampus as predictors.
The results of our study show that ‘‘breast cancer experience’’ is
associated to a reduction in hippocampus volume. Specifically, as
a group the remitted breast cancer patients of our study had an
8% reduction in global hippocampus volume, and a 11%
reduction in posterior hippocampus volume compared to healthy
controls. In addition, ‘‘breast cancer experience’’ is associated to a
deficit in episodic autobiographical memory. The cancer patient
group had 20% less access to episodic autobiographical memory
than controls. However, both groups had significantly more access
to positive memories than negative memories. The volume of the
posterior hippocampus and the group were predicting the episodic
autobiographical memory score.