Gene Variations Predict Chemotherapy Side Effects
Seemingly benign differences in genetic code can predispose people to chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, a condition that is hard to predict and often debilitating enough to cause cancer patients to stop their treatment early, a Mayo Clinic study has found. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy affects an estimated 20 to 30 percent of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy agents. The symptoms can be as mild as a light tingling or numbness, but can progress to a loss of feeling in the hands and feet, or to the point where patients can no longer walk normally and are left with a permanent feeling of numbness or pain. Currently, there is no way to predict which patients undergoing chemotherapy will develop this side effect or to what degree. read more