Papers of the Week

The expanding use of chemotherapy in curative cancer treatment has simultaneously resulted in a substantial and growing cohort of cancer survivors with prolonged disability from chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). CIPN is associated with several commonly prescribed chemotherapeutics, including taxanes, platinum-based drugs, vinca alkaloids, bortezomib and thalidomide. These distinct classes of chemotherapeutics, with their varied neurotoxic mechanisms, often cause patients to suffer from a broad profile of neuropathic symptoms including chronic numbness, paraesthesia, loss of proprioception or vibration sensation and neuropathic pain. Decades of investigation by numerous research groups has provided substantial insights describing this disease. Despite these advances there is currently no effective curative or preventative treatment option for CIPN and only the dual serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor Duloxetine is recommended by clinical guidelines for the symptomatic treatment of painful CIPN.