Anemia is a novel predictive factor for the onset of severe chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in lymphoma patients receiving rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone therapy.

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) frequently occurs in lymphoma patients receiving R-CHOP, a drug combination therapy. Although severe CIPN may lead to reduction and/or discontinuation of the medication, predictive factors of CIPN have not been investigated sufficiently to date. We performed a retrospective exploratory research to determine associations between prevalence of severe CIPN and sociodemographic data, health characteristics, and medical conditions such as anemia at initial diagnosis. Forty patients (indolent lymphoma, n = 9; diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; n = 31) received R-CHOP therapy from September 2009 to July 2014. The median age of patients was 58 years (range = 27-76 years). Statistical analyses were applied to the patients, who were divided into two groups: mild CIPN (no symptoms or grade 1 according to the CTCAE version 3.0 program) and severe CIPN patients (grade 2 or higher). Forward stepwise logistic regression analyses were performed using the following variables: sex, BMI, BSA, hyperglycemia, malnutrition, and anemia. Severe CIPN occurred in seven patients (17.5%). Gender and anemia remained following the stepwise procedure, and anemia predicted severe CIPN significantly (OR= 19.45, 95% confidence interval =1.52-171.12). Our study suggests that anemia at initial diagnosis could be a predictive factor of R-CHOP-induced CIPN.