Trial reportJournal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology2013
Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of acetyl-L-carnitine for the prevention of taxane-induced neuropathy in women undergoing adjuvant breast cancer therapy.
Trial report in Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 100 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
S0715: Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial of Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALC) for the Prevention of Taxane Induced Neuropathy Phase III
Preventive Effect of Acetyl-L-carnitine on Oxaliplatin-induced Peripheral Neuropathy： A Randomized, Controlled, Open-label, Phase 2 Trail
Desloratadine to Prevent Taxane-induced Peripheral Neuropathy in Patients With Breast Cancer (DETOXp)
Who cites it
100 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 212 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nutrition Interventions in the Treatment of Gastrointestinal Symptoms during Cancer Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Pooled it
- The Effect of Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR) on Peripheral Nerve Regeneration in Animal Models: A Systematic Review.Neurochemical research · 2023Pooled it
- Pharmacologic interventions for fatigue in cancer and transplantation: a meta-analysis.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2018Pooled it
- Efficacy and Effectiveness of Carnitine Supplementation for Cancer-Related Fatigue: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2017Pooled it
- Clinical practice guidelines on the evidence-based use of integrative therapies during and after breast cancer treatment.CA: a cancer journal for clinicians · 2017Guideline
- Natural products and complementary therapies for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: A systematic review.Critical reviews in oncology/hematology · 2016Pooled it
- Clinical practice guidelines on the use of integrative therapies as supportive care in patients treated for breast cancer.Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs · 2014Guideline
- Association between hyperglycemia and the development of chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy among patients with breast cancer in the control trial.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2025Trial
- Efficacy of transauricular vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced painful peripheral neuropathy: a randomized controlled exploratory study.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024Trial
- Randomized adaptive selection trial of cryotherapy, compression therapy, and placebo to prevent taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with breast cancer.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Neu-horizons: neuroprotection and therapeutic use of riluzole for the prevention of oxaliplatin-induced neuropathy-a randomised controlled trial.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2021Trial
- Research design considerations for chronic pain prevention clinical trials: IMMPACT recommendations.Pain reports · 2021Trial
- Quality of life outcomes including neuropathy-associated scale from a phase II, multicenter, randomized trial of eribulin plus gemcitabine versus paclitaxel plus gemcitabine as first-line chemotherapy for HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer: Korean Cancer Study Group Trial (KCSG BR13-11).Cancer communications (London, England) · 2019Trial
- Cold therapy to prevent paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2018Trial
- Two-Year Trends of Taxane-Induced Neuropathy in Women Enrolled in a Randomized Trial of Acetyl-L-Carnitine (SWOG S0715).Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2018Trial
- Effects of acetyl-L-carnitine and methylcobalamin for diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.Journal of diabetes investigation · 2016Trial
- Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma treated with bortezomib, doxorubicin and low-dose dexamethasone: a study from the Wisconsin Oncology Network.Cancer chemotherapy and pharmacology · 2014Trial
- A phase III randomized, placebo-controlled study of topical amitriptyline and ketamine for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN): a University of Rochester CCOP study of 462 cancer survivors.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2014Trial
40 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
15 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeChemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is common and leads to suboptimal treatment. Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) is a natural compound involved in neuronal protection. Studies have suggested ALC may be effective for the prevention and treatment of CIPN. PATIENTS AND
methodsA 24-week randomized double-blind trial comparing ALC (3,000 mg per day) with placebo in women undergoing adjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy was conducted. The primary objective was to determine if ALC prevents CIPN as measured by the 11-item neurotoxicity (NTX) component of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) -Taxane scale at 12 weeks. Secondary objectives included changes in 24-week end points, functional status (FACT-Trial Outcome Index [TOI]), fatigue (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy [FACIT] -Fatigue), and NTX grade.
resultsA total of 409 patients were evaluable (208 received ALC; 201, placebo). In a multivariate linear regression, week-12 scores were 0.9 points lower (more CIPN) with ALC than placebo (95% CI, -2.2 to 0.4; P = .17), whereas week-24 scores were 1.8 points lower with ALC (95% CI, -3.2 to -0.4; P = .01). Patients receiving ALC were more likely to have a > 5-point decrease in FACT-NTX scores (38% v 28%; P = .05), and FACT-TOI scores were 3.5 points lower with ALC (P = .03). Grade 3 to 4 neurotoxicity was more frequent in the ALC arm (eight v one). No differences between arms were observed for FACIT-Fatigue or other toxicities. Serum carnitine level increased with ALC but remained stable with placebo.
conclusionThere was no evidence that ALC affected CIPN at 12 weeks; however, ALC significantly increased CIPN by 24 weeks. This is the first study to our knowledge showing that a nutritional supplement increased CIPN. Patients should be discouraged from using supplements without proven efficacy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.