Evaluación de la eficacia del consejo nutricional y suplemento dietético en el control de la neuropatía periférica inducida por quimioterapia

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a heterogeneous group of neuropathies caused by oncological treatments and is the most common neurological complication related to chemotherapy. Currently, there are few treatment alternatives. The objective of our study is the assessment and control of CIPN, through nutritional advice associated with a dietary supplement (DS) based on non-enzymatic antioxidants (Neuronuva®).

A quasi-experimental study with a six month follow-up was carried out in 31 patients. Measurements that included a questionnaire and physical examination were performed at baseline, at 3 and 6 months, in patients with acute or chronic CIPN grade 2 or higher on the NCI-CTCAE scale. NPIQ was caused by oxaliplatin in 54.8%, by paclitaxel in 19.4%, by cisplatin, carboplatin or nabpaclitaxel in 6.5% each and by docetaxel or eribulin in 3.2% respectively. At three months after the start of nutritional advice and SD, 24 patients showed improvement in NPIQ with an objective response rate of 77.4% (95% CI 0.61-0.93), 5 patients (16.1%) showed no changes, and 2 patients discontinued SD. After administration of SD, NPIQ showed improvement at three months (p = 0.001) and at six months (p = 0.002). Although there is no effective therapy thats completely controls CIPN, the data obtained in our study are favourable, showing a clear improvement in CIPN in more than 2/3 of patients. We propose carrying out larger multicentre confirmatory studies. In addition, the use of this DS, together with nutritional measures, could be considered as prophylaxis in chemotherapies that are more neurotoxic.