Purpose: Taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy (TIPN) is a common and bothersome toxicity. This study aimed to determine the incidence and severity of TIPN in patients with breast cancer and to investigate the relationship between TIPN and quality of life.
Methods: A total of 82 breast cancer patients with TIPN symptoms were included in this study. The criteria of National Cancer Institute-Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTCAE v4.03) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30, version 3.0) were used to evaluate grading of sensory neuropathy and quality of life, respectively. Analysis of the data was done by IBM SPSS statistics version 23.
Results: A total of 346 patients received taxane-based chemotherapy and 82 patients (23.7%) experience TIPN. The mean (SD) global health status/quality of life, physical functioning, role functioning, and pain subscales were 60.63 (5.26), 80.64 (9.05), 81.77 (10.41), and 43.88 (11.27), respectively. There were significant negative correlations between global health status/quality of life, physical functioning, and role functioning subscales with the grade of neuropathy (r = -0.33, -0.80, and -0.61, respectively) and positive correlation between pain subscale and the grade of neuropathy (r = 0.70).
Conclusion: This study shows a clear association between TIPN and worsened quality of life. These findings emphasize on detecting and management of TIPN in an effort to improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients.
Keywords: EORTC QLQ-C30; NCI-CTCAE; Taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy; breast cancer; quality of life.