Profiles of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in breast cancer patients undergoing taxane-based chemotherapy: A latent class analysis

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the potential subgroups of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) in breast cancer patients undergoing taxane-based chemotherapy and examine the association of the latent subtype with patient characteristics.

Methods: This multi-center, cross-sectional investigation was conducted between April 2022 and March 2023. CIPN was evaluated using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynecologic Oncology Group-Neurotoxicity scale. Latent class analysis was employed to identify distinct CIPN subgroups, and multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze the associations between these subgroups and patient characteristics.

Results: In total, 397 individuals were categorized into three subgroups: high symptoms with high dysfunction (Class 1; 25.4%), moderate symptoms with low dysfunction (Class 2; 39.2%), and low symptoms with low dysfunction (Class 3; 35.3%). Taxane type, chemotherapy cycles, fatigue, β-blocker use, and depression were significant predictors of the subgroups (P < .05).

Conclusion: CIPN symptoms in breast cancer patients are heterogeneous. Significant factors for the latent subgroups included taxane type, chemotherapy cycles, β-blocker use, fatigue, and depression. Identifying different subgroups of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy would help develop interventions tailored to the patients.