The AIUR Trial: Surgical Gloves to Prevent Peripheral Neuropathy

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is associated with side effects of taxanes, including paclitaxel. The common side effect may adversely affect the quality of life. However, no treatment for CIPN can be strongly recommended. Therefore, prevention is important. Cryotherapy, compression therapy, and exercise therapy can be considered for prevention, but no definitive recommendations are available. Studies with wider sample sizes are needed to confirm the efficacy and the preventive methods are complex for application. The study use surgical gloves for compression therapy to reduce discomfort and increase compliance with the procedure. Patients with stage II-III breast cancer who receive paclitaxel chemotherapy for at least 12 weeks in six academic hospitals in South Korea will participate in the study. The study design is a multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial. The patients are randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Intervention patients will wear two-layer of normal-sized surgical gloves on both hands during chemotherapy infusion. The primary outcome is to demonstrate the preventive effect of compression therapy using surgical gloves as measured by the change in the neurotoxicity of FACT-Tax questionnaire.