Acute pain associated with oxaliplatin infusion: case report and literature review

Both acute and chronic neurotoxicities are well-described with the use of oxaliplatin. We describe the case of a 50-year-old man with Dukes C colon carcinoma being treated with an adjuvant FOLFOX4 (5-fluorouracil, leucovorin and oxaliplatin (85 mg/m(2) per cycle)) who developed a widespread acute pain 5 min after commencing his twelfth cycle of chemotherapy. The pain was disabling and distressing, and remained for 16 h despite multimodality analgesia. The patient was not rechallenged with oxaliplatin. We believe this presentation represents an acute neurological phenomenon relating to oxaliplatin. Of note, this acute reaction occurred after 11 cycles of treatment, significantly later in the treatment course than other reports of atypical acute reactions.