Neurotoxic Complications of Chemotherapy in Children. Literature Review

• Main Authors: Olga P. Kovtun, Vladimir V. Bazarny, Oksana V. Koryakina, Alexandr N. Abdullaev
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paediatrician Publishers, LLC 2020-04-01
• Series: Pediatričeskaâ Farmakologiâ
• Subjects: chemotherapy protocols; toxic encephalopathy; peripheral neuropathy; review
• Online Access: https://www.pedpharma.ru/jour/article/view/1809

The article provides the review of literature on the issue of neurotoxic complications of chemotherapy in children. The data search was carried out in the PubMed, CyberLeninka, RSCI databases and others. There are many works devoted to studying the distribution, structure, and clinical features of chemo-induced neurological disorders in modern literature. In general, analysis of literature has shown that the incidence of neurotoxic complications varies widely depending on the research methods and used chemo-ther-apeutic drugs. Manifestations of chemotherapy-induced neurological disorders are quite diverse and accompanied by the central and peripheral nervous system damage. However, it has been shown that the platinum-based drugs have effective ototoxic effect with the damage of the auditory nerve. The Vincristine often causes peripheral polyneuropathy. Methotrexate and Ifosfamide cause metabolic encephalopathy. Cytarabine’s neurotoxicity is the damage of the cerebellum. The addition of neurological symptoms leads to decrease in the quality of life of patients. Some studies present the results of study of the causes and pathogenetic manifestations of neurotoxic reactions, changes in the genome associated with the development of specific toxic effects are identified. Despite the fact that many pathogenetic mechanisms of chemotherapy-induced neurotoxic complications have been revealed, the significance of laboratory predictors for prognosing and early assessment of these complications has not been essentially established yet, thus, there is the need for further study of this topic.