Abstract
A double-blind, randomized, crossover study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ondansetron in chemotherapy-naive cancer patients. In 13 patients who received cisplatin-containing chemotherapy complete or a major antinausea and a successful antivomiting (0-2 episodes) protection was attained in 92% and 77%, respectively with ondansetron as compared with 46% and 31%, respectively with high-dose dexamethasone (p = 0.047, p = 0.05). Maintaining patients on oral ondansetron proved effective in controlling delayed emesis and was significantly superior to high-dose dexamethasone. For those who received non-cisplatin-containing chemotherapy of high emetogenic potential (9 patients), a trend was observed in favor of ondansetron, albeit, it was not statistically significant compared with a combination of dexamethasone and metoclopramide. We conclude that ondansetron is an effective and tolerable drug for the management of acute and delayed cisplatin-induced emesis, the ease of its administration is also appealing for an outpatient use.