TURKISH JOURNAL of ONCOLOGY The Effect of Henna in Nail Changes Due to Paclitaxel Treatment Received: April 05, 2021 Accepted: May 03, 2021 Online: September 16, 2021 Accessible online at: www.onkder.org Turk J Oncol 2021;36(4):545–46 doi: 10.5505/tjo.2021.2750 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Emel Emine KAYIKÇI, 1 Gülbeyaz CAN 2 1 Department of Nursing, Istanbul Medeniyet University Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul-Turkey 2 Department of Nursing, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Istanbul-Turkey Dear Editor, Paclitaxel, a member of Taxane family, causes vari- ous side efects that negatively afect the life quality of the patients. One of these side efects is nail tox- icity that develops in all or some of the nails.[1] In the present case report, it was aimed to emphasize that henna application may be efective in the man- agement of nail changes in a patient with metastatic breast cancer receiving paclitaxel, regarding the recovery of nail changes without interrupting the treatment of the patient. A 51-year-old female patient was admitted to the outpatient chemotherapy unit for the 32 nd week of weekly paclitaxel treatment with the diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer. When the history of the pa- tient was taken, during the paclitaxel treatment, it was determined that nail changes started in the patient af- ter the 3 rd week of treatment. Te patient reported that “I cannot touch my fngertips and my nails anywhere, otherwise I have too much pain, my nails smell very bad.” In addition, the patient had discoloration of her nails and onycholysis. Te patient was very uncomfort- able with the appearance of her nails and she was try- ing to hide her nails (Fig. 1). Henna application was recommended to the pa- tient for the treatment of nail changes. She was asked to do this twice a week in such a way that henna will always be present on the nails. Ten, the changes on the nails of the patient were followed weekly (Fig. 2). Te patient was followed up for a total period of 7 weeks, and at the end of the 7 th week, all the prob- lematic parts were detached and replaced with new nails (Fig. 3). Nail changes related to chemotherapy cause cos- metic problems, pain, and infection and negatively af- fect the life quality of the patients.[1] Te studies have revealed that henna has antibac- terial, antifungal, analgesic, and anti-infammatory ef- Dr. Emel Emine KAYIKÇI İstanbul Medeniyet Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Fakültesi, Hemşirelik Bölümü, İstanbul-Turkey E-mail: emel.ozdemir@medeniyet.edu.tr OPEN ACCESS This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Fig. 1. Initial evaluation. Pain, tension, onychosis, and smell in the nails.