Exploring Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Severity Patterns in Young Adult Women with Breast Cancer...

The purpose of this secondary analysis was to explore paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy severity patterns among women with breast cancer receiving weekly or dose dense paclitaxel regimens.

Young adult women with breast cancer (18-39 years) beginning cancer treatment with dose dense (175 mg/m² every 14 days) or weekly (80 mg/m²) paclitaxel completed the QLQ-CIPN20 before the first paclitaxel infusion (T1) and then at two time points during paclitaxel chemotherapy (T2: 350 mg/m²; T3: 700 mg/m²). QLQ-CIPN20 scores were compared between women receiving dose dense or weekly paclitaxel across the three time points using mixed-effect linear regression models.

Among women receiving dose dense paclitaxel (n=27), mean QLQ-CIPN4 scores increased from 4.63 at T1 to 15.43 at T3, while among women receiving weekly paclitaxel (n = 12), mean QLQ-CIPN4 scores increased from 2.08 at T1 to 5.56 at T3. Similar trends were observed for changes in QLQ-CIPN20 sensory and motor subscale scores among both groups. Overall, while CIPN severity was worse at each time point among women receiving dose dense paclitaxel relative to women receiving weekly paclitaxel, there were no statistically significant differences between groups for changes in QLQ-CIPN4 (p = 0.24), QLQ-CIPN20 sensory (p = 0.41), or QLQ-CIPN20 motor score (p = 0.68) over time.

The results may be used to promote awareness among patients and clinicians regarding potential trajectories of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy for women with breast cancer.