Nerve damage from cancer treatment

If cancer doesn't kill us, sometimes its treatment leaves us with many more problems. One of these is neuropathy. A new study was to be announced over the weekend at ASCO in San Francisco where several hundred women were studied after cancer treatment.

"At an average of six years after cancer diagnosis, 45 percent of them still had symptoms of nerve damage, such as loss of feeling in their hands and feet.

These symptoms were associated with much poorer physical functioning and difficulty doing daily tasks, such as cooking and shopping. The women with symptoms also had changes in their walking patterns and were nearly twice as likely to fall as those without such symptoms, the researchers discovered."
And the best part is:

"While there are no effective treatments for this side effect, rehabilitative exercise programs may preserve physical functioning and mobility in the presence of neuropathy to help prevent falls and resulting injuries..."

I love the part about new effective treatments. Maybe we need cancer treatments with fewer side effects.