High-dose 8% capsaicin patch in treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: single-center experience

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is frequent complication of anti-neoplastic treatment with established frequency of 30–40% of patients undergoing chemotherapy [1]. It significantly reduces quality of life and may be the cause of dose limitation or even cessation of treatment [2]. CIPN can be induced by many chemotherapeutics such as: taxanes, vinca alkaloids, epothilone, bortezomib, thalidomide and especially platinum agents [3]. Oxaliplatin is the most frequent agent causing CIPN causing symptoms even after 2 years after cessation of treatment [4]. Currently, there are many emerging concepts for treatment of CIPN [5]. Treatment options that have proven effectiveness are duloxetine [6], venlafaxine [7] and gabapentinoids [8]. Opioids show very limited effects [9]. Promising concepts with very limited data consider topical menthol [10]. Fallon et al. [10] recently described that topical menthol improves pain, walking ability, mood and sensation in patients with CIPN. Other concept studied by Gewandter et al. [11] considered topical amitriptyline with ketamine, but received poor results in comparison with placebo.

Currently, high-dose topical capsaicin patch receives extensive attention. Capsaicin is an agonist of the transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor (TRPV1). It inhibits neural transmission in sensatory axons. Topical capsaicin patch has been proven effective for post-herpetic neuralgia [12, 13] and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neuropathy [14]. On the other hand, large Cochrane Database review suggests that it should be used only as a last resort [15]. Despite growing interest in topical high-dose capsaicin patch in treatment of neuropathic pain, there are no studies describing effectiveness of capsaicin on CIPN [5]. The aim of our study is to determine the effectiveness of high-dose capsaicin patch in treatment of CIPN-associated pain.

The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals of Human Use (ICH) Good Clinical Practice, current US FDA guidelines, and local ethical and legal requirements. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of all participating institutions. We received permission to conduct this study from the Jagiellonian University Bioethics Committee (KBET/235/B/2014). All patients provided written informed consent.

For the study, we qualified patients in stable state undergoing oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy for colon cancer who developed painful peripheral polyneuropathy, based on clinical history and neurological examination. The patients were asked to give their written consent before application of high-dose 8% capsaicin patch.

Between January 2013 and February 2014, twenty-one patients with chronic pain resulting from CIPN were referred by medical oncologists to application of a high-dose 8% capsaicin patch. All the patients were assessed and qualified by a specialist in neurology and palliative medicine. A questionnaire of neuropathic symptoms was used and included questions about the presence of numbness, tingling, pain or impaired sensory function in hands and/or feet, clumsiness in fingers, peripheral muscular weakness or difficulties in walking, and the patients replied with Yes or No answers. Symptoms and signs of neuropathic pain were evaluated including a history of sensory sensations such as tingling, numbness, sharp, burning, shooting, or electric-like pain, paresthesia, allodynia, hyperalgesia and hyperpathia and motor dysfunction (foot or wrist drop, symmetric motor weakness, difficulty buttoning a shirt or holding a pen), myalgias or muscle cramps. Neurological examination was performed by a neurologist. The neurological examination included motor assessment (muscle strength in the limbs), sensory testing (examination of touch, pinprick, cold, warmth, vibration and position sense and testing of allodynia for dynamic and static mechanical stimuli), testing of balance, coordination, and deep tendon reflexes. All patients met the inclusion criteria: age 18–72 years, diagnosed chemotherapy-induced peripheral sensory neuropathy, average pain intensity equal to or higher than 4 at screening for at least four consecutive days according to NRS, undamaged and non-irritated, dry skin at the sites of pain location, informed, written consent to participate in a clinical study. Patients were excluded when one or more of the following criteria were met: hypersensitivity to capsaicin, pregnancy, diabetes mellitus, patients with unstable or poorly controlled hypertension or a history of recent cardiovascular events (6 months) before starting treatment, patients using high doses of opioids in the treatment, patients in whom a high degree of opioid tolerance is suspected, patients in whom we observe lack of response to opioid analgesics administered orally in acute pain during the treatment procedure.

The patch application process took place in a dedicated minor operation theater. The patients selected for the treatment had their dynamic pain score recorded prior to application.

The patients were given a patient information leaflet prior to admission, and the procedure was explained and any concerns or questions answered. Capsaicin 8% patch was applied by a nurse and closely supervised by a physician. Skin on the application site could not be irritated, dry or intact, a topical anesthetic cream (EMLA) was applied 1 h before Qutenza patch application. The patch, which may be cut to shape, was used within 2 h of opening the foil pouch. Patients may require systemic analgesic medication or topical cooling at the site during and after treatment. They were encouraged to wear it for as long as possible, but it could be removed if the pain became intolerable. None of the adverse events occurred.

Average pain score was 4 or above during the screening period, over a minimum of at least four consecutive days (using the NRS scale).

In our study, we described efficacy and safety of high-dose 8% capsaicin patch in treatment of patients with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients treated with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy for colon cancer. Total reduction of pain ranged between 84 and 97% assessed at 12 weeks. Furthermore, we observed no adverse events showing that high-dose capsaicin is safe and effective way to treat CIPN.

Effectiveness of high-dose 8% capsaicin is well established in treatment of HIV-associated neuropathy and post-herpetic neuralgia [16]. Results of meta-analysis calculating the data from seven studies incorporating 1458 patients showed reduction of neuropathy-related symptoms in favor of high 8% capsaicin in comparison with low-dose capsaicin 0.04% patch [16]. Another meta-analysis performed by Mou et al. [17] showed that for initial symptoms reduction of >30% occurred in 44% of patients with post-herpetic neuralgia and 41% of patients with HIV-associated neuropathy. All of the mentioned studies have observation period of 2–12 weeks as in our study. In this context, our study shows a striking reduction of neuropathy-related symptoms after application of high-dose 8% capsaicin with symptoms relief up to 97% after 12 weeks.

Certain authors attempted to determine possible predictors of treatment response to treatment with high-dose 8% capsaicin. Katz et al. [18] found that baseline pain intensity score ≤4, absence of allodynia and presence of hypoesthesia are related to sustained response to capsaicin treatment. Mainka et al. [19] found that the presence of hyperalgesia predicts analgesic efficacy of high-dose capsaicin. Our study group unfortunately was too small to calculate possible predictors of treatment response.

Our study has certain limitations. Firstly, our study population was only 18 patients and was limited by the amount of founding for off-label use of patches that we were able to provide. Second limitation that our study group was not examined by standardized questionnaires such as Brief Pain Inventory or McGill Pain inventory. On the other hand, all of patients were examined by a board-certified neurologist. This raw data show much more detailed signs and symptoms specific to neuropathic patients. Most of the standardized questionnaires do not include such specific symptoms. We are confident that in term of presenting neuropathic patients symptoms detailed neurological examinations have deeper significance. Thirdly, we were able to present only observation period of 12 weeks, not being able to determine the total length of effect of the treatment. We are planning to do so in further studies.

To the best of our knowledge this is the first study attempting to determine the use of high-dose 8% capsaicin patch in treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.