My mom has neuropathy. She talks about her feet burning, the pins and needles, the numbness that makes going down the stairs feel like a gamble. She is not a cancer patient. Watching her live with it is part of why I cannot leave this one alone.

And so many of you live with it too. I have met person after person in this community who beat their appendix cancer, got through the chemo, and came out the other side with hands and feet that tingle, burn, or go numb. Sometimes for a few months. Sometimes for good. It has a name, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, or CIPN, and for years the medical answer has basically been to live with it.

So here is neuropathy after chemo, laid out straight: what actually helps right now, and what is finally coming.

What neuropathy actually is

Some chemo drugs do not only kill cancer cells. They also damage the small nerves that reach your hands and feet. The usual culprits are oxaliplatin, common in appendix and colon cancer, and the taxanes. Hurt those nerves and they start firing wrong. Tingling, numbness, burning, sharp jabs of pain, or that strange walking-on-cotton feeling. It can turn buttoning a shirt, holding a fork, or keeping your balance into real work.

For some people it eases in the months after treatment ends. For others it never fully leaves. That is the part almost no one warns you about going in.

Why it has been so hard to treat

Two reasons. Nerves heal slowly, if they heal at all. And for decades there was no drug proven to fix it. Even now, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) points to only one medicine with enough evidence to recommend for painful CIPN, and it is honest that the benefit is modest. Nothing has been proven to prevent it in the first place. So if you have felt like this got handed to you and then everyone moved on, you were not imagining it.

What helps today

Here is what actually has evidence behind it. None of it is a cure. For a lot of people it takes the edge off, and the edge is the whole problem.

• Duloxetine (Cymbalta). The one medicine ASCO recommends for painful CIPN. Not a miracle, but it helps some people. Doctors usually start at 30 mg and work up.
• Movement. Exercise has some of the strongest evidence we have. Even short, regular walks count.
• Scrambler therapy and acupuncture. Both look promising, both are low risk. Worth asking about.
• Cold and compression during infusion. Cooling gloves and socks worn while the chemo runs are showing real promise for cutting nerve damage before it starts. If you are still in treatment, ask your team about this now, not later.
• Topicals. The capsaicin 8% patch and compounded creams can calm burning and pain in a specific spot.

What’s coming for neuropathy after chemo

Here is what I am watching, and why I am hopeful for the first time in a while. For years this pipeline was empty. Now there are drugs in late-stage trials built to repair or quiet the nerve damage itself, not just paper over the pain.

• Suzetrigine (Journavx). A new kind of pain medicine that blocks a specific nerve signal, and it is not an opioid. The FDA approved it in early 2025 for short-term pain, and it is now in Phase 3 trials for nerve pain.
• Halneuron (tetrodotoxin). Aimed squarely at chemo nerve pain. The FDA put it on fast track, and larger trial results are expected in the fall of 2026.
• Newer approaches, like ART26.12. Several more drugs going after the biology of nerve damage are in earlier trials, part of a pipeline of more than 60 candidates.

Let me be straight, because I always try to be. Most drugs in trials never make it, and not one of these is something you can get today. But this is the most real movement I have seen on neuropathy in years, and these are the names worth knowing when your doctor, or the news, brings them up.

One more piece that matters. In 2025 the FDA issued new guidance pushing companies to develop drugs that prevent CIPN. It sounds like paperwork. It is not. It means the people who set the rules finally see this as a problem worth solving.

What to do with all this

If neuropathy after chemo is part of your life, do not settle for the shrug. Take this to your oncology team and ask about duloxetine, physical therapy, cold therapy for any future infusions, and whether a clinical trial fits you. Bring the list. Make them work through it with you, one line at a time.

And one favor. If something has helped your neuropathy, a medication, a routine, a device, a small change that made your days easier, please let us know. This community learns from each other, and what worked for you might be the exact thing another person needs to hear.

Add it to your tracker

A few weeks ago I put together a free Appendix Cancer Research Toolkit: how to set up Google Alerts, follow the specialists, and keep it all in one simple tracker. This neuropathy news is exactly what that tracker is for. If you grabbed it from that post, add these treatments to it, and set a Google Alert for “chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy” and the drug names above so the trial results come to you.

This is for information and support, not medical advice. Talk with your own care team about what is right for you.

Amanda Moore founded Appendicure after her husband was diagnosed with appendix cancer. Read our story.

Sources: ASCO Guideline on CIPN, Journal of Clinical Oncology (ascopubs.org) · The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy (foundationforpn.org) · Cryotherapy for CIPN meta-analysis (PubMed) · Dogwood Therapeutics, Halneuron Phase 2b (ir.dwtx.com) · Vertex, Suzetrigine Phase 3 (news.vrtx.com)