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Updated: Aug 4, 2025

Absorption of Nasal and Bronchial Fluids: Precision Sampling of the Human Respiratory Mucosa and Laboratory Processing of Samples
Published on: January 21, 2018
A five arm natural history study of nasal vestibulitis
Elizabeth J Cathcart-Rake1, David Zahrieh2, Deanne Smith1
1Department of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Introduction:
Nasal symptoms are frequently reported by patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Methods:
Eligible patients planning to receive paclitaxel, docetaxel, nab-paclitaxel, bevacizumab without a concomitant taxane, or "other" (non-taxane, non-bevacizumab) chemotherapy regimens were invited to participate in this prospective study. Patients reported nasal symptoms prior to each dose of chemotherapy.
Results:
The percentage of patients (95% CI) who reported nasal symptoms was the same for patients who received bevacizumab or nab-paclitaxel, 82.6% (61.2%, 95.1%). There were no significant differences among the proportions of patients experiencing nasal symptoms within the paclitaxel, nab-paclitaxel, and bevacizumab cohorts. Patients in the nab-paclitaxel cohort were more likely to experience symptoms than those in the non-taxane non-bevacizumab cohort or docetaxel cohort (p = 0.001, p = 0.001). Patients in the bevacizumab cohort were more likely to experience nasal symptoms than those in the non-taxane non-bevacizumab cohort (p = 0.03).
Conclusion:
Nasal vestibulitis symptoms are common in patients receiving chemotherapy, especially those receiving paclitaxel, docetaxel, and bevacizumab. Further investigations into treatments of this symptom complex are warranted.

