Colorectal tumors damage nerves before chemotherapy begins, study finds

For decades, the nerve damage suffered by colorectal cancer patients has been laid at the feet of chemotherapy — a reasonable assumption, but perhaps an incomplete one. Researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center have found evidence that tumors themselves begin eroding peripheral nerves before treatment ever starts, driven by inflammation and disrupted fat metabolism that quietly degrade the protective sheaths nerves depend on. The discovery does not absolve chemotherapy, but it reframes the question: if the nervous system is already compromised when treatment begins, the suffering that follows m