• Posted January 29, 2025

Chemo Causes Nerve Pain For Many Cancer Patients

Four in every 10 cancer patients treated with chemotherapy develop severe peripheral nerve pain, a new evidence review suggests.

These patients might experience loss of balance and coordination, weakness or sensations of numbness, tingling, “pins and needles,” or burning, researchers said in a study published Jan. 28 in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.

“Our findings emphasize that chronic painful chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy represents a substantial global health challenge, affecting more than 40% of those diagnosed,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Ryan D’Souza, an anesthesiologist with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Platinum-based or taxane chemotherapy drugs appear to pose the greatest risk for nerve pain, and lung cancer patients seem to have the highest rates of neuropathy, results show.

Chemo drugs kill cancer but also damage healthy cells and tissues, including those of the nervous system, researchers said in background notes.

Peripheral neuropathy is a known potential side effect of chemotherapy, but this study is the first to estimate how common it is among cancer patients.

The condition is thought to be caused by chemo drug damage that disrupts or rewires normal nerve signaling, resulting in persistent pain, researchers said.

For the study, researchers pooled the results of 77 previous studies involving nearly 11,000 participants from 28 countries.

The data revealed that just over 41% of patients treated with chemo developed painful and persistent peripheral neuropathy that lasted at least three months.

Nearly 41% of patients treated with platinum-based chemo developed nerve pain, as well as just over 38% of those treated with taxanes, results show.

Nerve pain was most common in lung cancer patients, affecting more than 62%. This is probably because these patients frequently require multiple and prolonged cycles of chemo.

People treated for ovarian cancer (32%) and lymphoma (36%) had the lowest risk.

Researchers said future study should focus on how chemo specifically causes nerve pain, and on developing therapies that can protect cancer patients who are receiving the lifesaving treatment.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about peripheral neuropathy.

SOURCE: BMJ Journals, news release, Jan. 28, 2025