Onycholysis in patients treated with docetaxel

Nail changes due to docetaxel—a neglected side effect and nuisance for the patient

“…Most of the studies report single cases of nail changes [3,5,8,10,11,17,18]. In accordance with what we have experienced in the clinical setting, it seems as if nail changes is underestimated and not consistently reported as a side effect.…”

“…Previous studies and case reports have indicated that the nail changes occur in the range between 6-51%, and some indicate that the side effect is probably underestimated [3,5,8,[10][11][12][13][14][16][17][18]. Most often, very little is described about how the nail changes are evaluated, and in only one study, the nail changes has been estimated according to a formal toxicity scoring system [14].…”

“…Reviewing the literature concerning docetaxel and nail changes, it was found that one study was not reporting nail changes at all as a side effect [7] and, when reported or referred, it was in the range between 6-51% of the patients having some degree of nail changes [2,3,5,6,8,[10][11][12][13][14][16][17][18]. Most of the studies report single cases of nail changes [3,5,8,10,11,17,18].…”

Dermatological adverse events with taxane chemotherapy

“…Nail lesions are evident after several weeks of treatment [133] because of the slow growth rate of the nail plate [135], and tend to increase with the number of treatment cycles [132, 133, 135, 136]. Although they are more common in patients receiving the once-weekly regimens [6, 135, 136, 138], they can also be observed with the every three-week regimen [90, 133, 139, 140]. In an overwhelming majority, these changes eventually regress after cessation of treatment [30, 132, 141], notwithstanding the fact that persistent sequelae affecting the nail plate and its growth may be encountered (figure 12).…”

Chemotherapy-induced dermatological toxicity: frequencies and impact on quality of life in women’s cancers. Results of a prospective study

“…Morbidity related to dermatological changes is generally linked to palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia, hair loss, as well as nail changes such as subungual hematomas, onycholysis, and leukonychias or loss. Previous studies have mainly focused on selected group of patients as part of phase II and III trials and report on the prevalence of alopecia [12-14, 16, 19, 34], while, occasionally, case reports will identify some extreme but not representative situations [24,28]. In this prospective study, we sought to determine the prevalence of dermatological morbidity in patients receiving chemotherapy for women's cancers and evaluate the impact on quality of life.…”