Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Hand-foot syndrome (HFS) is one of the common side effect of cytotoxic agents and multi kinase inhibitors (MKIs), characterized by erythema, edema and erythrodysesthesia of palmar and plantar with or without pain. HFS has a major impact on patient’s quality of life, and, in severe case, it could affect normal activities of daily life because of pain. In addition, frequently, HFS is known to be a dose-limiting toxicity requiring discontinuation, dose reductions, or delays of anti-cancer drug therapy. Therefore, providing early diagnosis and treatment of HFS would contribute to continuation and completion of anti-cancer drug therapy. However, the mechanism of toxicity of HFS still remains unknown, and the information about the animal model of HFS has been limited. The development of mechanism-based treatment and prophylaxis of HFS is awaited.
We have tried to establish animal models of HFS using a cytotoxic agent to investigate the mechanism and mechanism-based effective treatment to prevent HFS. In our experiments, we successfully induced changes in limbs in rats using repeated dose of DOXIL (liposomal formulation of doxorubicin) or Tegafur (cytotoxic agent), and the changes were macroscopically and histopathologically similar to HFS observed in human. In this session, we will give an overview of HFS and introduce the findings obtained in animals.
