Vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy in children with cancer: A systematic review

- Vincristine (VCR) is commonly used as part of treatment for many childhood cancers.
- VCR-induced peripheral neuropathy (VIPN) is a main dose-limiting side effect.
- Factors influencing VIPN include age, race, dose, pharmacokinetics, and genetics.
- Uniformity in assessing VIPN in children is warranted to compare study results.

Vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy (VIPN) is a dose-limiting side effect of vincristine (VCR) treatment in children, leading to diminished quality of life. Much remains unknown about the underlying mechanisms of VIPN. This review systematically summarizes the available literature concerning contributing factors of VIPN development in children. Studied factors include patient characteristics, VCR dose, administration method, pharmacokinetics, and genetic factors. Furthermore, this review reports on currently available tools to assess VIPN in children. In total, twenty-eight publications were included. Results indicate that Caucasian race, higher VCR dose, older age and low clearance negatively influence VIPN, although results regarding the latter two factors were rather conflicting. Moreover, genetic pathways influencing VIPN were identified. Furthermore, the studied tools to assess VIPN seriously impairs comparability across study results. Studying the factors and their interactions that seem to influence VIPN in children, should aid in personalized VCR treatment, thereby increasing VCR effectiveness while minimizing toxicity.