Association between the chemotherapy-induced neuropathy with obesity and body fat distribution

Objective: This study aims to evalute the association between neuropathy frequency/severity with obesity and body fat distribution in cancer patients who have peripheral neuropathy (PN) symptoms when receiving taxane and/or platinum based chemotherapy or they have neuropathy symptoms after treatment. This is the first study examined the chemotherapy induced PN frequency/severity with obesity and body fat distribution in cancer patients in our society. Method: Between March 2017 and November 2018, one hundred cancer patients who have peripheral neuropathy symptoms were included in the study. Peripheral neuropathy complaints were graded according to the National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria (CTCAE) version 4,0. The patients' weight, height, blood pressure, umbilical measurements and body composition measurements using by bioimpedance device were recorded. Patient data was collected from hospital system. Data were analyzed using SPSS v.24 program. Results: One hundred patients had an age average of 59,16 ± 10,84 and the median was 61 years. 45 % were male and 55 % were female. 37 % of the patients have stage 1, 45 % have stage 2, 17 % have stage 3 and 1 % have stage 4 peripheral neuropathy was determined. The patients were classified as normal weight, overweight and obese according to body mass index and bioimpedance measurements. According to data, a statistically significant correlation was found between the PN grade with the number of taken cure, the duration of chemotherapy, and the duration of the complaints (p <0.05). There was no significant relationship between other parameters and PN grade. Conclusion: There was no statistically significant relationship between neuropathy frequency/severity with obesity and body fat distribution. Further studies are needed to determine the relationship between these parameters. Key words: cancer, peripheral neuropathy, obesity, body composition analysis