Using Mixed Model for Repeated Measures to Study the Changes of Physical Function for Breast Cancer Patients with Taxane-Based Chemotherapy

• Activity Number: 193
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 1, 2016 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Author(s): Xueliang Pan* and Scott Monfort and Ajit Chaudhari and Maryam Lustberg
• Companies: and The Ohio State University and The Ohio State University and The Ohio State University
• Keywords: Linear mixed model ; Longitudinal data ; physical function ; chemotherapy

Abstract

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a dose-limiting toxicity of chemotherapy drugs, such as taxanes. Currently, the diagnosis of CIPN is mainly based on the patient self-report only. The balance and gait tests, two objective measures to quantify the physical function of the patients, could be used to inform the diagnosis of the CIPN. The purpose of this pilot study was to study the changes of these objective measures, and their association with the CIPN diagnosis in breast cancer patients undergoing taxane-based chemotherapy. We enrolled 32 breast cancer patients. Patients completed self-reports of symptoms and objective measures of physical function (i.e., balance and gait testing) in an outpatient oncology clinic at five timepoints: (1) baseline, (2-4) before starting subsequent chemotherapy cycles, and (5) 1-3 months after last chemotherapy. Linear mixed models for repeated measures were used to quantify the changes of these objective measures and their association with the self-reported CIPN symptom. Significant negative changes in both patient-reported outcomes and objective functional measures were observed.