Variability of Oxaliplatin-Induced Neuropathic Pain Symptoms in Each Cycle and Its Implications on the Management of Colorectal Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Study in South Western Sydney Local Health District Hospitals, Sydney, Australia

Figure 3

Cycle-by-cycle variance in neuropathic pain for individual patients on FOXFOX and XELOX treatment regimens. In the left hand panels subject-by-subject neuropathy scores for those receiving FOLFOX were plotted and categorized based on the presence (≥1, solid line) and absence (<1 dotted line) of neuropathy in cycle 1 (n = 200). In the lower 3 panels, the data were grouped based on whether the FOLFOX regimen was maintained (n = 81), reduced (n = 57), or ceased (n = 49). The right hand panel tabulates the impact of the presence or absence of neuropathy in cycle one on the neuropathy scores at cycle 8 (end) of FOLFOX and XELOX treatments. The presence of patient-by-patient oscillations in the neuropathic score indicates that the emergence of neuropathy in one cycle is not predictive of the developing a higher score in the subsequent cycles. This observation held true across FOLFOX and XELOX even when regimens were subject to dose reduction and/or cessation indicating that neuropathic pain alone is not a sufficient reason to cease treatment.