Three Years’ Experience with Tropisetron in the Control of Nausea and Vomiting in Cisplatin-Treated Patients

Summary

The efficacy and tolerability of tropisetron in preventing cisplatin-induced nausea and vomiting was studied in 2 open trials and compared with the efficacy and tolerability of metoclo-pramide plus lorazepam in a randomised crossover trial.

In the first study, tropisetron 10mg was administered intravenously over 15 minutes before the cisplatin infusion and a second 10mg dose was given after the 60-minute infusion of cisplatin (> 50 mg/m₂) in 54 patients with advanced cancers, for a total of 165 courses. Good responses for nausea and vomiting were recorded in 83.0% and 87.9% of courses, respectively, with complete protection from nausea and vomiting in 44.8% and 66.1% of courses, respectively.

In the second study in 25 patients whose characteristics and cisplatin schedule were comparable with those of the first study, very similar results were achieved in 104 courses of chemotherapy, despite a reduction in tropisetron dose to a single 5mg intravenous infusion 15 minutes before cisplatin.

The efficacies of intravenous tropisetron 5mg and metoclopramide 2 mg/kg plus lorazepam administered 15 minutes before cisplatin in preventing acute and delayed nausea and vomiting were compared in a randomised crossover study involving 20 patients. Tropisetron was significantly superior (p < 0.001) in controlling both acute and delayed (day 1) symptoms.

In all studies, the tolerability of tropisetron was excellent. The most frequent side effect was mild to moderate headache, occurring in 5 to 7% of patients.

In conclusion, our experience suggests that tropisetron is an effective and well tolerated antiemetic drug that improves the quality of life of cancer patients administered highly emetogenic chemotherapy regimens.