Objective:

It was shown that rate of occurence of toxic polyneuropathy secondary to drugs used in cancer treatment, can show differences among cancer drugs. We aimed to evaluate chemotherapy induced toxic polyneuropathy in cancer patients who received taxane and platine.

Material and Methods:

We enrolled all patients who received taxane (docetaxel and paclitaxel) and platine (carboplatine and cisplatin). Each patient was evaluated clinically and electrophysiologically in terms of polyneuropathy before and after the treatment. In the patients with toxic polyneuropathy anti-Yo, anti-Hu, anti-Ma2/Ta antibodies were mesaured.

Results:

Totally 123 patients were included in the study. 22 of the patients (17.8%) died during the treatment. Twelve patients (9.8%), clinically and electrophysiologically was diagnosed with polyneuropathy before the treatment. Thirty-four patients, who died or had polyneuropathy due to cancer before treatment were excluded from the study. Remaining 89 patients were included to the study. Following treatment, 50 of 89 patients (%56,2) had toxic polyneuropathy due to chemotherapy. 33 of 56 patients (58.9%) who were treated with paclitaxel +carboplatine had toxic polyneuropathy. 10 of 20 patients (50%) who received docetaxel+cisplatin had toxic polyneuropathy. There was no statistically significant difference between two groups in terms of inducing polyneuropathy. The risk of polyneuropathy in both groups were found to be related to the cumulative dose.

Conclusion:

Drug induced toxic polyneuropathy was found fairly high in patients who were treated with taxane and platine. The study pointed out that the toxic polyneuropathy rate is related to cumulative dose.

Keywords: carboplatin, drug therapy, polyneuropathies, taxane