PATIENTS SELF-REPORTED FUNCTIONAL STATUS AFTER GRANISETRON OR ONDANSETRON THERAPY TO PREVENT CHEMOTHERAPY-INDUCED NAUSEA AND VOMITING AT 6 CANCER CENTERS

Patient functional status after administration of either granisetron o r ondansetron to prevent acute chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomitin g (CINV) was studied. Pharmacists and nurses from six cancer centers d istributed Functional Living Index - Emesis (FLIE) questionnaires to 1 15 outpatients receiving either granisetron or ondansetron for prevent ion of ClNV. The emetogenic potential of each patient's chemotherapy r egimen was high, moderately high, or moderate. Immediately before and 72 hours after chemotherapy, each patient rated his or her reaction to each of 18 items on the questionnaire on a 7-point scale. Possible sc ores ranged from 18 to 126, with higher scores indicating higher level s of functioning. The occurrence of nausea in the granisetron group wa s 40.0% compared with 43.2% in the ondansetron group; the occurrence o f vomiting was 18.8% in the granisetron group and 11.1% in the ondanse tron group. Patients who received highly emetogenic chemotherapy had s ignificantly lower scores on the FLIE after chemotherapy than before. Patients with both nausea and vomiting reported a much higher negative impact on functional status after chemotherapy than those with nausea only. The mean prechemotherapy and postchemotherapy FLIE scores were 124.2 and 110.4 for granisetron and 124.9 and 111.9 for ondansetron. G ranisetron and ondansetron did not differ significantly in their effec t on functional status reported by patients before and 72 hours after receiving cancer chemotherapy.