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Peripheral Neuropathy in Ovarian Cancer  

Yi Pan

Source: Ovarian Cancer - Clinical and Therapeutic Perspectives
ISBN 978-953-307-810-6
Edited by: Samir Farghaly
Publisher: InTech, February 2012

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Peripheral Neuropathy in Ovarian Cancer

(Dr.) Yi Pan
Department of Neurology & Psychiatry, Saint Louis University
USA

1. Introduction

Peripheral neuropathy is not uncommon in ovarian cancer. The incidence density of peripheral neuropathy was 21.5 per 1000 person-years in ovarian cancer, 15.3 per 1000 person-years in breast cancer and 18.3 per 1000 person-years in lung cancer for patients who
received platinum-taxane combination chemotherapy (Nurgalieva et al., 2010).

Carboplatin/paclitaxel is the chemotherapy of choice for advanced ovarian cancer, which has been reported to associate with chemotherapy induced neurotoxicity in as high as 54% of patients after their first-line 6 cycles of treatment and with 23% of patients with residual neuropathy after a median follow up of 18 months (Pignata et al., 2006 ).

However, peripheral neuropathy in ovarian cancer is not always due to chemotherapeutic agents. Other etiologies of neuropathy in ovarian cancer patients are focal compression, nutritional
deficiency, ......cont'd


5. Conclusion

Peripheral neuropathy in ovarian cancer is complex. When patients develop neuropathy symptoms in ovarian cancer, we cannot simply conclude that it is chemotherapy-induce neuropathy. It is a challenge to treat this condition. Diagnosis of the etiology of the neuropathy, treating the underlying disease, correction of metabolic, nutritional, endocrine abnormalities, and decompression of the nerve entrapment will preserve nerve function. The goals of treatment are reduction of symptoms, improvement of function and patient’s quality of life.