OBJECTIVES :

The current study is intended to determine the incidence and severity of weekly paclitaxel vs paclitaxel plus carboplatin combination induced peripheral neuropathy and to describe the individual and combination therapy difference in the incidence rate.

METHODS :

A prospective observational study was conducted in 22 patients, 9 receiving weekly paclitaxel and 13 receiving paclitaxel-carboplatin combination. The patients were included after their 3^rd cycle of chemotherapy. They were followed for neurological examination and assessment was done based on eviQ CIPN screening tool and the severity was graded according to CTCAE v4.0.3.

RESULTS :

Among 22 patients, 14 patients developed peripheral neuropathy (63.63%), 7 in patients receiving weekly paclitaxel and 7 in patients receiving paclitaxel-carboplatin combination showed the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy. Individually incidence rate of weekly paclitaxel is 77.7% where as for paclitaxel-carboplatin it is 53.84%. The patients with weekly paclitaxel showed grade 2 severity where in patients with paclitaxel-carboplatin 3 subjects showed grade 3 and 4 subjects showed grade 2 severity of peripheral neuropathy as per the CTCAE v4.0.3.

CONCLUSIONS :

The severity of CIPN was more in paclitaxel-carboplatin when compared to weekly paclitaxel. This shows that the patients receiving paclitaxel-carboplatin are at a greater risk of precipitating peripheral neuropathy in comparison with weekly paclitaxel.

Keywords: chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy, paclitaxel, carboplatin, chemotherapy, severity, incidence.