Ng, W., & Della-Fiorentina, S. (2010). The efficacy of oral ondansetron and dexamethasone for the prevention of acute chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting associated with moderately emetogenic chemotherapy—A retrospective audit. European Journal of Cancer Care, 19, 403–407.
To determine the efficacy of 8 mg oral ondansetron plus 8 mg oral dexamethasone as prechemotherapy antiemetic regimen for patients receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (MEC)
Patients who received treatment with MEC were given a standard oral regimen of 8 mg ondansetron and 8 mg dexamethasone. Patients were instructed to take these medications one hour prior to their scheduled treatments. Nursing staff assessed compliance prior to chemotherapy treatment. Nursing staff assessed each patient on day one after chemotherapy treatment.
The study was conducted at a single, outpatient site in Australia.
Study participants were in active treatment, receiving palliative care.
This was a retrospective, descriptive audit.
Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTAE v3.0) was used to measure severity of acute nausea and vomiting.
The use of 8 mg oral ondansetron and 8 mg oral dexamethasone as antiemetics for MEC offers comparable efficacy to other regimens for control of acute emesis; however, this regimen does not adequately control acute nausea, particularly in anthracycline-based regimens.
Although 8 mg oral ondansetron and 8 mg oral dexamethasone provided adequate rates of relief of acute CINV in nonanthracycline-based chemotherapy regimens, they alone are not adequate for anthracycline-based regimens.