Chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting.

Abstract

We continue to strive to identify agents which can totally eliminate CT induced nausea/vomiting frequently the most disabling of all CT induced side effects. Many factors however make evaluation of clinical trails difficult. Age, gender, weight, type of cancer, results of prior chemotherapy, performance status, location and environment of treatment (outpatient vs inpatient), time of CT administration in addition to the agents and schedules used can all impact on the development of CT induced nausea/vomiting and thus making interpretation of trials difficult. Nevertheless the availability of many different classes of antiemetic agents has had a major impact on the prevention of this side effect. However, further trials are needed to optimise the agents used, and in particular to overcome the problem of delayed nausea and vomiting.