Neuropathy is not associated with clinical outcomes in patients receiving adjuvant taxane-containing therapy for operable breast cancer

Purpose: Neuropathy is a common and potentially disabling complication of adjuvant taxane therapy. Recent studies have identified candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with taxane-induced neuropathy. Therefore, we sought to determine whether neuropathy was associated with breast cancer recurrence in a clinical trial population who received adjuvant taxane therapy. Patients and Methods: Trial E1199 included 4,554 eligible women with operable breast cancer who received up to four cycles of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide every 3 weeks followed by paclitaxel 175 mg/m² every 3 weeks for four cycles (P3), paclitaxel 80 mg/m² weekly for 12 cycles (P1), docetaxel 100 mg/m² every 3 weeks for four cycles (D3), or docetaxel 35 mg/m² weekly for 12 cycles (D1). A Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine the relationship between neuropathy and disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and recurrence-free survival (RFS) by treating neuropathy status as a time dependent covariate and using a landmark analysis. Results: Of 4,554 patients who received at least one taxane dose, grade 2 to 4 neuropathy developed in 18%, 22%, 15%, and 13% of patients in the P3, P1, D3, and D1 arms, respectively. In a model that included age, race, obesity, menopausal status, tumor size, nodal status, treatment arm, neuropathy, and hyperglycemia, no significant relationship was found between neuropathy and DFS, OS, or RFS. Conclusion: There was no association between taxane-induced neuropathy and outcome.