New Tool Suggests Dominance of Non-Painful Symptoms in Peripheral Neuropathy

“Clinically, we have noted that numbness and tingling appear more bothersome than pain. I don’t think pain has been overemphasized, as it is an important symptom that can be quite bothersome to patients,” Dr. Pachman said.

“However, I do think more attention should be paid to finding treatments that may also address numbness and tingling, as these symptoms appear harder to treat,” Dr. Pachman emphasized. Dr. Pachman is a medical oncology specialist affiliated with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and was not involved in the study.

Future Research Planned

Dr. Mendoza has specific plans for further related research.

“We have revised the TNAS to reflect patient’s input as a result of our qualitative interviewing. The revised TNAS was then administered to a new group of patients receiving newer cancer therapy in addition to those receiving oxaliplatin and bortezomib in the original study. The analysis and writing of this follow-up paper is now underway,” Dr. Mendoza stated.

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“Further studies are needed to assist in the interpretation of the TNAS scores. What are clinically meaningful difference in TNAS scores? These are typically designed using a combination of anchor-based or distribution-based methods of determining meaningful difference,” Dr. Mendoza added.

According to Dr. Pachman, the current findings also highlight the need for effective therapeutic agents and strategies to prevent and treat CIPN.

“Further research to identify methods to prevent CIPN are ongoing and very important. Of course, identifying ways to treat existing neuropathy is another important research focus. Recently, there is increasing research to identify those at risk of developing neuropathy, such as using genetic testing, and this may be a helpful area of research as well,” Dr. Pachman said.

“I think clinicians are becoming more aware of the devastating effects neuropathy can have on patient quality of life and function. More research is demonstrating that the neuropathy can be long lasting and therefore it is important to focus on methods to prevent and treat CIPN,” Dr. Pachman concluded.

References

1. Mendoza TR, Wang XS, Williams LA, et al. Measuring Therapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: Preliminary Development and Validation of the Treatment-Induced Neuropathy Assessment Scale. J Pain Off J Am Pain Soc. 2015;16(10):1032-1043. doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2015.07.002.
2. Wolf SL, Barton DL, Qin R, et al. The relationship between numbness, tingling, and shooting/burning pain in patients with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) as measured by the EORTC QLQ-CIPN20 instrument, N06CA. Support Care Cancer Off J Multinatl Assoc Support Care Cancer. 2012;20(3):625-632. doi:10.1007/s00520-011-1141-9.