| Exclusion Criteria: | 1) Patients who decline to participate or who are determined incapable of completing the research.
2) Carboplatin, vincristine, vinblastine, paclitaxel, or docetaxel within the past 6 months or planned in the next 12 months.
3) Patients with established clinical neuropathy.
4) Patients with a history of diabetes mellitus requiring oral medication or insulin treatment.
5) Patients with chronic alcoholism, as clinically estimated by the patient's physician.
6) Patients who are on medication (for whatever reason) that can modify peripheral neuropathy (gabapentin, lamotrigine, carbamazepine, phenytoin, tricyclic antidepressants, etc) and had dose adjustment within the 2 weeks prior to starting the current trial or plan to have adjustment of these medications during trial. The intent is to minimize the chance that success or failure of the ALA is due to changes in other therapies with a potential anti-neuropathy effect.
7) Active CNS disease, such as clinically-evident metastases (any mets in the CNS) or leptomeningeal disease, dementia, or encephalopathy.
8) Patients receiving greater than 100 IU of vitamin E (including multi-vitamins that contain greater than 100 IU of vitamin E). Since vitamin E is a known antioxidant, consuming high doses of vitamin E may obscure the conclusion of this study. Note: Patients who decide to discontinue vitamin E or multi–vitamins with vitamin E may participate in this trial. No lapse in time is required from the time vitamin E is discontinued to time of enrollment to trial.
9) Patients who are pregnant.
10) Patients who receive physical modality including: Annodyne(monochromatic near-infrared photoenergy,890 nm), microcurrent, or transcutaneous electrical neural stimulation for peripheral neuropathy related symptoms during the trial. ( Patient is allowed to receive physical or occupational therapy treatment for functional training). |