Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is an unwanted side effect of treatment and a common health issue affecting patients and survivors of pediatric cancers. Peripheral neuropathy is known to cause impairments in touch and haptic perception as well as proprioception. Currently, there is no gold standard means of measuring these somatosensory impairments. Consequently, the extent of impairment during chemotherapy and recovery after treatment is not well understood. Given that these senses are crucial for typical motor development and for performing activities of daily life, it seems imperative to obtain accurate measures of how chemotherapy affects these senses in cancer patients and survivors. In a collaboration with the Pediatric Oncology Service at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital we are currently employing two novel, simple tests that yield objective measures of sensory function, which will help to better understand the between chemotherapy and sensory impairment.

Related Publications:

Novel measures of somatosensory impairment in chemotherapy-exposed pediatric cancer patients 
Jessica M. Holst-Wolf; Juergen Konczak; Lucie Turcotte
Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr