The Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Outcome Measures Standardization (CI-Perinoms) Study: An Answer to the Unsettled Question of Drug-Related Neuropathy Assessment in Cancer Patients

European Association of NeuroOncology Magazine 2012; 2 (1): 37-40

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Keywords: Assessment,  chemotherapy,  neuopathy,  Rasch analysis,  toxicity

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a potentially severe and dose-limiting side effect of anticancer treatment. Despite its clinical relevance several crucial aspects of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy remain unsolved. Among them, the proper assessment of the occurrence and severity of this side effect is one of the most important. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy severity is generally assessed using common toxicity criteria scales, but most of them mix objective and subjective impairment and disability aspects. In addition, marked inter-observer disagreement exists using these scales, leading to misinterpretation of the results. Various other scale types exist (eg, composite scales based on clinical and instrumental examinations; patient-reported outcome measures based on self-administered questionnaires), but these outcome measures have never been subjected to formal clinimetric evaluation. The Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Outcome Measures Standardization (CIPerinoms) study is a collaborative effort of 20 European and US oncology and neurology centres specifically designed to compare the validity and reliability of different methods proposed for the assessment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in a formal way. The final aim of CIPerinoms is to propose a standardized wellevaluated set of measures for optimal assessment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in future clinical studies.