Los cancer treatments They often cause nerve damage that can lead to long-lasting symptoms. In fact, many drugs, from chemotherapy to modern immunotherapies, attack nerves as well as tumor cells. Some therapies, such as oxaliplatin or vinca alkaloids, cause Between 70 and 90 percent of patients complain of painbalance problems, or sensations of numbness, burning, or tingling. These symptoms can be very debilitating. Sometimes they disappear after treatment, but about 50% become chronic. Specialists call this chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Medications have proven ineffective against them.
In this context, a team of researchers led by sports scientist Fiona Streckmann from the University of Basel and the German Sport University in Cologne has shown that Specific exercise, along with cancer treatment, can prevent nerve damage in many cases.The researchers have published their findings in the journal ‘JAMA Internal Medicine’.
The study involved 158 cancer patients, both men and women, who were being treated with either oxaliplatin or vinca alkaloids. The researchers randomly divided the patients into three groups. The first was a control group, whose members received standard care. The other two groups completed exercise sessions twice a week for the duration of their chemotherapy, with each session lasting between 15 and 30 minutes. One of these groups performed exercises that focused primarily on balance on an increasingly unstable surfaceThe other group trained on a vibrating platform.
Periodic examinations over the next five years showed that about twice as many participants in the control group developed CIPN than in either exercise group. In other words, Exercises performed along with chemotherapy were able to reduce the incidence of nerve damage by 50 to 70 percent.. In addition, they increased the quality of life subjectively perceived by patients, made it less necessary to reduce the dose of cancer drugs and reduced mortality in the five years following chemotherapy. Participants who received vinca alkaloids and performed sensorimotor training had the greatest benefit.
No pharmacological treatment to reduce the incidence of CIPN
In recent years, large amounts of money have been invested in reducing the incidence of CIPN, explains Streckmann. “This side effect has a direct influence on clinical treatment: for example, patients may not receive the number of planned chemotherapy cycles they actually need, the dose of neurotoxic agents in chemotherapy may need to be reduced, or treatment may need to be stopped.”
Despite the investments made, there is still no effective pharmacological treatment: several studies have shown that drugs cannot prevent or reverse this nerve damage. However, according to the latest estimates, In the United States, $17,000 per patient is spent annually on the treatment of nerve damage associated with chemotherapy.Streckmann’s hypothesis is that “doctors prescribe drugs regardless because the level of suffering of patients is very high.”
On the contrary, the scientist points out, The positive effect of exercise is proven and in comparison this treatment is very cheap“The potential of physical activity is vastly underestimated,” says Fiona Streckmann. She is very hopeful that the results of the recently published study will lead to more sports therapists being recruited in hospitals in order to better exploit this potential. In fact, the scientific team is currently working on guidelines for hospitals so that they can integrate exercise into clinical practice as a supportive therapy. In addition, a study has been running in six children’s hospitals in Germany and Switzerland (PrepAIR) since 2023, the aim of which is to prevent sensory and motor dysfunctions in children receiving neurotoxic chemotherapy.
