Evaluation of chemotherapy-related peripheral neuropathy in lung cancer treatment

Chemotherapy-related peripheral neuropathies are observed frequently in lung cancer treatment in clinical practice. The present study aimed to evaluate the electrophysiologic findings and clinical symptoms in patients treated for lung cancer with different chemotherapy regimens who had the findings of peripheral neuropathy.

Patients who had electromyography (EMG) examinations with the prediagnosis of peripheral neuropathy at two different centers between January 2011 and December 2019 were included. The demographic data, neurologic examination findings, symptoms, EMG findings, and chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment were evaluated retrospectively.

A total of 742 patients were included in the study, with 630 (84.90%) male and 112 (15.10%) female patients. Of the patients included in the study, 406 (54.71%) had positive sensorial symptoms, 494 (66.57%) had negative sensorial symptoms, 162 (21.83%) had motor symptoms, and 254 (34.23%) had pain symptoms. The patients were classified into two groups on the basis of the presence of polyneuropathy detected via EMG as group I (n = 500, 67.38%) including the patients with polyneuropathy and group II (n = 242, 32.61%) including the patients without polyneuropathy. Negative sensorial symptoms and motor symptoms in group I along with dysesthesia and paresthesia symptoms in group II were observed at ratios that were higher at a statistically significant level (p = 0.001, p = 0.001, p = 0.001, p = 0.001).

Sensorial symptoms are observed most frequently in chemotherapy-related peripheral neuropathies in lung cancer treatment and motor symptoms may also increase according to the chemotherapy regimen.