Incidence and severity of hand-foot syndrome in cancer patients receiving infusional 5-fluorouracil or oral capecitabine-containing chemotherapy regimens

Background Hand-foot syndrome is a common adverse effect of 5-fluorouracil infusion or oral capecitabine. Several types of research have shown that clinical presentations of hand-foot syndrome vary by ethnicity, so we tried to look at the incidence and severity of hand-foot syndrome in individuals receiving infusional 5-fluorouracil or oral capecitabine at a tertiary care hospital in central Kerala, India. Aim To determine the incidence and severity of hand-foot syndrome in cancer patients receiving infusional 5-fluorouracil or oral capecitabine chemotherapy regimen. Methodology A prospective cohort study was conducted at the oncology department of a tertiary care hospital in Kerala, India. Our study subjects were those who underwent chemotherapy with infusional 5-fluorouracil or oral capecitabine and later developed hand-foot syndrome. The patients who developed hand-foot syndrome after chemotherapy were assessed to determine the incidence of hand-foot syndrome. Also, the severity of hand-foot syndrome among cancer patients was estimated using CTCAE version 5.0. Results Out of 104 study participants, 76.90% ( N = 80) of the patients had hand-foot syndrome, whereas 23.07% ( N = 24) did not. The onset of hand-foot syndrome symptoms varied depending on the patient. Most patients (60%) displayed grade-one symptoms in their third cycle. The remaining patients showed grade-one symptoms in cycle one (3.75%), cycle two (17.5%), and cycle four (18.75%). The study also showed t no association between the incidence of hand-foot syndrome and the type of regimen. Conclusion The majority of the patients suffered from hand-foot syndrome. As well, most of the patients were afflicted by grade one hand-foot syndrome.