Symptoms Associated with Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy

A View of Perceived Symptoms Associated with Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy in Patients with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer remains the most frequent type of cancer globally. Nevertheless, the increased rate of disease-free survival of breast cancer brought the specific need of managing of short and long-term side effects of multimodal treatment. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is one of the most debilitating conditions which is characterized by a wide variety of experienceable symptoms by patients that need to be addressed in detail. Therefore, in this cross-sectional study, it was aimed to assess the potential symptoms associated with CIPN of patients with breast cancer who underwent systemic chemotherapy. In addition, it was aimed to assess the potential associations between experienced symptoms of CIPN and sociodemographic (age, body mass index etc.) and clinical features (mean exposed dose, type of surgery (if any) etc.).

Patients with breast cancer who underwent systemic chemotherapy were assessed with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (EORTC-CIPN20) questionnaire within 1-2 months after completion of systemic chemotherapy. A simple data form was implemented in which patients' age, weight, height, marital status, smoking status, etc were investigated. In addition, the dose of the exposure of systemic chemotherapy was calculated according to the Body Surface Area (BSA) and DuBois formulation as follows: BSA [m2] = Weight [kg]0.425 × height (cm)0.725 × 0.007184]. The universal dose calculations were used to calculate the mean exposure according to the following doses for each patient-specific to their chemotherapy regimen: Four cycles of Anthracycline were applied 14 days apart 60 mg/m2 intravenous (IV), 12 cycles of Paclitaxel were applied seven days apart 80 mg/m2 IV, and four cycles of Docetaxel were applied 21 days apart 75 mg/m2 IV.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being a volunteer to participate
• aged over 18 years old
• being female
• being a candidate for systemic chemotherapy

Exclusion Criteria:

• Having distant metastasis
• Having comorbidities that might contribute to or cause sensorial and motor deficits such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, polyneuropathy, etc.,
• Prolonged surgical (if any) complications (i.e. pain, seroma, etc.)