Abstract

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting has a major adverse impact in cancer patients, and this has led to considerable research in this field. There are a great number of clinical trials focusing on acute emesis and, significant strides forward have been made with this problem. However, the pathophysiology of delayed emesis is still poorly understood and the control of it remains a therapeutic challenge. To prevent and treat chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting, a wide variety of drugs is available. In order to prevent acute emesis induced by highly emetogenic chemotherapy, the use of both 5-HT3 receptor antagonist plus dexamethasone is the choice. For delayed emesis, metoclopramide plus dexamethasone should be considered for those patients with satisfactory control of acute episodes and for those with poor acute emesis control, the combination of 5-HT3 receptor antagonist plus dexamethasoneshould be used. The prevention of acute emesis induced by moderately emetogenic chemotherapy involves the use of a combination of a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist plus dexamethasone, while more well-conducted studies are necessary to define the best anti-emetic therapy for delayed emesis, since the is no study comparing the different treatments in a proper manner

Key words: cisplatin; nausea; vomiting; anti-emetics; prevention; treatment