There are recorded side effects of chemotherapy that are known and accepted such as pain, loss of appetite and hair, and lethargy. However, there is an aspect of chemotherapy that still leaves room for debate and that is the effect of chemotherapy on the patients' speech and language skills. This is commonly referred to as 'chemo-brain' or 'chemo-brain fog'. This means that “post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment related to linguistic abilities exists. The word ""cognitive"" refers to the way your brain works to help you communicate, think, learn, solve problems, and remember” (American Cancer Society, n.d., para. 1). The reviewed literature evidences that there is a correlation between chemotherapy usage and lingual decline when compared to control group research subjects (Kesler et al., 2009; de Ruiter et al., in press; Inagaki et al., 2007; McDonald et al., 2008). In order to research this topic more in depth, research subjects who are in different stages of chemotherapy treatment regimens will be given tests/assessments to accurately evaluate what their current speech and language skills are. Results will be compared to a control group in the same age group as the chemo group. Results and conclusions will be shared as will implications for future research.

KEYWORDS: Cancer, Chemotherapy, Language, Speech, Chemo-brain, Chemo-brain fog

Hope would like to thank her faculty sponsor Dr. Motley for their support of this project.