Paice et al listed core criteria for the diagnosis of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. The authors are from multiple institutions in the United States and England participating in the ACTTION-American Pain Society Pain Taxonomy (AAPT) initiative.
Criteria for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy - all of the following:
(1) the onset of pain following exposure to a chemotherapeutic drug known to be neurotoxic
(2) painful symptoms in a "glove and stocking" pattern, starting in the lower extremities
(3) presence of nonpainful neurologic symptoms (numbness, pins and needles, etc)
(4) one or more of the following on clinical exam, usually bilateral and in a glove and stocking pattern:
(4a) hypoesthesia to stimuli (touch, vibration, non-noxious hot or cold)
(4b) hypoalgesia to blunt pressure or pinprick
(4c) hyperalgesia to noxious heat or cold stimuli
(5) severity of sensory abnormalities may be disproportionately greater than any motor symptoms in the affected areas (exception: vinca alkaloids)
(6) exclusion of other diagnoses that can explain the findings better
