Variaility in chemotherapy induced neuropathy in cancer patients in SW Sydney, Australia

What is it about?

Review of patient data showing that chronic pain induced by chemotherapy varies with treatment cycles .

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The accepted dogma is that chemotherapy induced pain gets worse with repeated treatment and this interferes with treatment compliance. Current clinical practise is to reduce chemo dosage or stop it altogether whe patients report increasing pain. This paper shows that neuropathic pain varies on a cycle-by cycle basis and is not well correlated with compliance. Importantly, the current belief that neuropathy is the predominant causal factor affecting treatment compliance needs to be revised. Additionally, patients who received 8 cycles of chemotherapy had a longer survival time compared to those did not.