Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Background: Most individuals affected by cancer who are treated with certain chemotherapies suffer of CIPN. Therefore, there is a high patient and provider interest in complementary non-pharmacological therapies, but its evidence base has not yet been clearly pointed out in the context of CIPN. Methods: The results of a scoping review overviewing the published clinical evidence on the application of complementary therapies for improving the complex CIPN symptomatology are synthesized with the recommendations of an expert consensus process aiming to draw attention to supportive strategies for CIPN.
CASP was used to evaluate the methodologic quality of the studies. Results: Seventy-five studies with mixed study quality met the inclusion criteria. The expert panel approved 17 supportive interventions, most of them were phytotherapeutic interventions including external applications and cryotherapy, hydrotherapy, and tactile stimulation.
More than two-thirds of the consented interventions were rated with moderate to high perceived clinical effectiveness in therapeutic use. Conclusions: The evidence of both the review and the expert panel supports a variety of complementary procedures regarding the supportive treatment of CIPN; however, the application on patients should be individually weighed in each case.
Based on this meta-synthesis, interprofessional healthcare teams may open up a dialogue with patients interested in non-pharmacological treatment options to tailor complementary counselling and treatments to their needs. Keywords: chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy CIPN , complementary therapies, supportive therapy, scoping review, consensus process, cancer, integrative oncology, interprofessional healthcare, non-pharmacological interventions.
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy CIPN develops due to neurotoxic treatments, in particular taxanes, vinca alkaloids, platinum agent, proteasome inhibitors, and thalidomide [ 1 ]. Such treatments attack the cellular and sub cellular level and cause altered ion channel activity sodium, potassium, calcium as well as changes in the intracellular systems, which are responsible for oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction [ 2 , 3 ].
