The effect of doloxetine on paclitaxel-induced neuropathy in breast cancer patients (clinical trial)

Background: The peripheral neuropathy caused by chemotherapy is a peripheral nervous injury caused by exposure to neurotoxic chemotherapy, which is one of the major nonhematologic complications caused by chemotherapy. This complication is one of the limiting factors in the treatment of the patient, which leads to a reduction in the patient s survival. Duloxetine is an anti-depressant drug that has been shown to have a significant effect on diabetes and fibromyalgia neuropathic pain in several papers.Materials and Methods: In this Randomized double-blind clinical trials, 40 patients with breast cancer who received paclitaxel were evaluated with PNQ neuropathy questionnaire. Then, four limbs were tested in all patients with Electromyography and eligible patients were divided into two groups. The first group received duloxetine for 12 weeks and the second group received placebo. The PQN questionnaire and nerve and muscle test were performed againResults: According to the PQN questionnaire, sensory and motor neurotoxicity severity has no significantly changes in the duloxetine group compared to the control group (P≥0.05). However, based on electrodiagnosis, in some of the nerve such as median , ulnar and DPN nerve conduct velocity and amplitude increased and Latency decreased significantly(P≤0.05).Conclusion: Based on evidence from electrodiagnosis in neuropathy induced by pecly taxol, duloxetin is effective.therefore, doluxetine is recommended to prevent neuropathy induced by paclitaxol in breast cancer

Keywords:

Duloxetine , Neuropathy , peclitaxol