PALLIATION OF MALIGNANT INTESTINAL-OBSTRUCTION USING OCTREOTIDE

Vomiting due to malignant intestinal obstruction is an unpleasant term inal event in many cancer patients, which responds poorly to conventio nal therapies. Somatostatin and its long-acting analogues reduce intes tinal secretion. For this reason, octreotide was used in a phase I/II study of patients with intractable vomiting secondary to intestinal ob struction due to malignant disease. Vomiting was controlled or the vol ume of nasogastric aspirate was markedly reduced in 18 of 24 (75%) pat ients receiving a subcutaneous infusion of octreotide (median initial dose 300, range 100-600 mu g/day) for a median of 9.4 (range 1-38) day s. A further 2 patients had partial relief of their symptoms. Octreoti de is an effective treatment of nausea and vomiting due to malignant b owel obstruction.