Grant: Project Grant

Up to 50% of people who receive taxane- or platinum-based chemotherapy get chronic damage to their nerves called chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). CIPN can cause sensory symptoms for life, like numbness, pain, and hypersensitivity to touch. It also causes motor symptoms, like weakness. It makes it hard for people to use their hands or feet and go back to work, causes injuries, and impacts quality of life. There are no ways to prevent or cure it and few treatments, so CIPN is often untreated. Recent fitness training has reduced motor symptoms. But it does not address sensory symptoms. Sensory Rehabilitation (SR) is a new treatment for numbness, pain, and hypersensitivity to touch. It includes desensitization exercises for affected body parts. SR was recently given to people with CIPN in a cancer hospital. People felt that SR helped them, but it has never been studied scientifically in people with CIPN. We worked with patient partners to design this project. Its goal is to see if a Sensory and Motor Rehabilitation program (SMR) that includes communication based on acceptance, partnership, and desired outcomes is feasible, if people want to use it, and if it reduces symptoms and improves function. Forty-four people with CIPN 3 or more months after treatment will receive SMR for 15 weeks. Questionnaires and physical tests will be done before and after treatment, and 3 months later. We will look at SMR's effects on numbness, pain, strength, dexterity, balance, function, psychological well-being, and quality of life. Patients, their caregivers, and therapists will take part in interviews to tell us their thoughts about SMR and CIPN's impact. It will help us to design a larger study to see how well SMR treats CIPN during and after chemotherapy and how long SMR effects last. If it helps, we will create a free training program for cancer care providers.