Summary
Twenty nonseminomatous testicular cancer patients not pretreated with emetogenic chemotherapy were included in a crossover study of antiemetic therapy. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either nabilone (2×2 mg/day) or alizapride (3×150 mg/day) prior to beginning lowdose cisplatin chemotherapy. Patients on nabilone had significantly fewer episodes of emesis than those on alizapride (medians, 1.1 vs 2.9;p<0.01). Nabilone was superior to alizapride in giving complete relief from nausea (medians, 65% vs 30%;p<0.01), and was more effective in shortening the duration of nausea (medians, 1.3 h vs 5.1 h;p<0.01); however, it caused more adverse effects. It is concluded that nabilone has greater antiemetic activity than alizapride in young patients receiving low-dose cisplatin chemotherapy. Nabilone dosage should be reduced to decrease the incidence and degree of adverse reactions while leaving the definite antiemetic activity unchanged.
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Niederle, N., Schütte, J. & Schmidt, C.G. Crossover comparison of the antiemetic efficacy of nabilone and alizapride in patients with nonseminomatous testicular cancer receiving cisplatin therapy. Klin Wochenschr 64, 362–365 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01728184
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01728184