Patients treated with antitumor drugs displaying neurological deficits arecharacterized by a low circulating level of nerve growth factor

The aim of our study was to explore whether nerve growth factor (NGF) plays any role in the development of peripheral neuropathy induced by anticancer treatment. We measured the circulating NGF levels in 23 cancer patients be fore and after chemotherapy, We evaluated whether the development of periph eral neurotoxicity was associated with changes in basal NGF concentrations in patients studied with a comprehensive neurological and neurophysiologica l examination. The results of these studies showed that the circulating lev els of NGF, which are about 20 pg/ml in plasma of controls, decrease during chemotherapy and in some cases completely disappeared after prolonged trea tment with antitumor agents. The decrease in NGF levels seems to be correla ted,vith the severity of neurotoxicity, These results clearly suggest that NGF might become a useful agent to preve nt neuropathies induced by antineoplastic drugs and restore peripheral nerv e dysfunction induced by these pharmacological compounds.