INCONSISTENCY OF PROGNOSTIC FACTORS FOR POSTCHEMOTHERAPY NAUSEA AND VOMITING

A number of prognostic factors have been reported to influence the pro bability of developing nausea and vomiting after cytotoxic chemotherap y. This study used data collected in four randomized anti-emetic trial s conducted by the Clinical Trials Group of the National Cancer Instit ute of Canada (NCIC-CTG) to assess the consistency of the effects of t hese prognostic factors. A total of 582 patients, all of whom had rece ived moderately emetogenic chemotherapy for the first time, but who we re assigned to different anti-emetics, were included in the analysis. The major findings was that the probability of post-chemotherapy nause a and vomiting was much more strongly influenced by the type of chemot herapy given and the type of anti-emetic used than by patient (e.g., a ge, gender) or environmental (e.g., treatment location, time of admini stration) characteristics. Further, patient-related factors had differ ent, and sometimes opposite, effects in different anti-emetic and chem otherapy subgroups. Finally, the relative potency of anti-emetics appe ared to vary with chemotherapy regimens. Implications of these finding s for future studies are discussed.