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Summary

CIPN is a clinically-relevant side effect of the modern treatment of solid and hematologic malignancies. However, frequently CIPN is not properly assessed in clinical practice and treatment is difficult.This presentation shows examples of simple methods to perform an objective neurological examination aimed at the detection and assessment of CIPN.The role of nerve conduction studies in CIPN patients is also critically reviewed.Finally, the presence of possible pitfalls in the routine use of several of the currently available scales used to score the severity of CIPN is highlighted.

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Biographies of the authors Institutions Acknowledgements

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Biographies of the authorsProf. Guido Cavaletti is a neurologist at the Department of Neurology of the S. Gerardo Hospital in Monza and is the head of the Experimental Neurology Unit at the Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Technologies (DNTB) of the University of Milano “Bicocca”, Monza, Italy.He performed his earliest clinical studies on CIPN in 1990 and subsequently he developed most of the CIPN preclinical models currently available to study the mechanisms of this severe complication of cancer treatment.He is the principal investigator of the CI-PERINOMS international study devoted to the identification of validated methods to assess CIPN.

Prof. Wolfgang Grisold is a neurologist at the Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute (LBI) for neuro-oncology in Vienna. He is both trained in electrophysiology and in neuropathologic evaluation of peripheral nerves. He has a long standing interest in neuro-oncology, in particular the side effects of tumour treatment in the peripheral nervous system. The neuro-oncologic group in Vienna is also interested in primary brain tumours, leptomeningeal metastasis and paraneoplastic syndroms.

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Institutions

The University of Milano “Bicocca” was founded in 1998 and despite it is one of the youngest in Italy it was ranked in 2009 at the 6th position among the 82 Italian Universities by the Italian University and Research Ministry. The DNTB is settled at the U8 Building of the University of Milano “Bicocca”. It is one of the four Departments composing the Medical Faculty and it is located at the Medical campus in Monza, close to the 800 beds S. Gerardo University Hospital where the assessment of chemotherapy-treated patients is performed by a collaborative neurology-oncology team.

The Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital (SMZ Süd) of the city of Vienna, is one of the largest hospitals in Vienna and is a teaching hospital of the University of Vienna. In total it has about 1000 beds. One of its designated activities is OncologyNeuro-oncology is performed within a tumour board, assembled from neurology, neurosurgery, general oncology, radiotherapy, with a close cooperation with pathology and radiology. National and international clinical neuro-oncological studies, mainly on brain tumor patients, chemotherapy-induced neuropathies and paraneoplastic syndromes, are performed within the LBI-Neurooncology at the KFJ HospItal in Vienna

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Acknowledgements

The assistance provided by the European Association for Neuro-Oncology (EANO) in the revision of this video is gratefully acknowledged.

The authors are also grateful to the patients who agreed to collaborate in the preparation of the medical interview and to the friends who gifted their voices.

This presentation has been realized by the Multimedia Production Center of the University of Milano-Bicocca with the collaboration of the S. Gerardo Hospital in Monza.

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