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Summary

CIPN is a clinically-relevant side effect of the modern treatment ofsolid and hematologic malignancies. However, frequently CIPN isnot properly assessed in clinical practice and treatment is difficult.

This presentation shows examples of simple methods to perform anobjective neurological examination aimed at the detection andassessment of CIPN.

The role of nerve conduction studies in CIPN patients is alsocritically reviewed.

Finally, the presence of possible pitfalls in the routine use of severalof the currently available scales used to score the severity of CIPN ishighlighted.

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Biographies of the authors Institutions Acknowledgements

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Biographies of the authors

Prof. Guido Cavaletti is a neurologist at the Department of Neurology of the S. GerardoHospital in Monza and is the head of the Experimental Neurology Unit at theDepartment of Neuroscience and Biomedical Technologies (DNTB) of the University ofMilano “Bicocca”, Monza, Italy.

He performed his earliest clinical studies on CIPN in 1990 and subsequently hedeveloped most of the CIPN preclinical models currently available to study themechanisms of this severe complication of cancer treatment.

He is the principal investigator of the CI-PERINOMS international study devoted to theidentification of validated methods to assess CIPN.

Prof. Wolfgang Grisold is a neurologist at the Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital and LudwigBoltzmann Institute (LBI) for neuro-oncology in Vienna. He is both trained inelectrophysiology and in neuropathologic evaluation of peripheral nerves. He has a longstanding interest in neuro-oncology, in particular the side effects of tumour treatmentin the peripheral nervous system.

The neuro-oncologic group in Vienna is also interested in primary braintumours, leptomeningeal metastasis and paraneoplastic syndroms.

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Institutions

The University of Milano “Bicocca” was founded in 1998 and despite it is one of theyoungest in Italy it was ranked in 2009 at the 6th position among the 82 ItalianUniversities by the Italian University and Research Ministry.

The DNTB is settled at the U8 Building of the University of Milano “Bicocca”. It is one ofthe four Departments composing the Medical Faculty and it is located at the Medicalcampus in Monza, close to the 800 beds S. Gerardo University Hospital where theassessment of chemotherapy-treated patients is performed by a collaborativeneurology-oncology team.

The Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital (SMZ Süd) of the city of Vienna, is one of the largesthospitals in Vienna and is a teaching hospital of the University of Vienna. In total it hasabout 1000 beds. One of its designated activities is Oncology

Neuro-oncology is performed within a tumour board, assembled fromneurology, neurosurgery, general oncology, radiotherapy, with a close cooperation withpathology and radiology. National and international clinical neuro-oncologicalstudies, mainly on brain tumor patients, chemotherapy-induced neuropathies andparaneoplastic syndromes, are performed within the LBI-Neurooncology at the KFJHospItal in Vienna

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Acknowledgements

The assistance provided by the European Association forNeuro-Oncology (EANO) in the revision of this video isgratefully acknowledged.

The authors are also grateful to the patients who agreed tocollaborate in the preparation of the medical interview andto the friends who gifted their voices.

This presentation has been realized by the MultimediaProduction Center of the University of Milano-Bicocca withthe collaboration of the S. Gerardo Hospital in Monza.

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