Sleep protects against chemotherapy induced emesis

✍ Scribed by Luis Domínguez-Ortega; Ricardo Cubedo-Cervera; Hernán Cortés-Funés; Elena Díaz-Gállego

• Book ID: 101228016
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 393 KB
• Volume: 77
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19960415)77:8<1566::aid-cncr21>3.0.co;2-x

✦ Synopsis

BACKGROUND.

We present a clinical trial to assess the hypothesis that chemotherapy related acute emesis is reduced when drugs are delivered while the patient is sleeping.

METHODS.

Adults without previous sleep disturbances or vomit inducing conditions who were going to receive their first courses of 100 mg/mz cisplatin were included. We reduced antiemetic prophylaxis consisting of ondansetron and dexamethasone in subsequent groups of patients.

RESULTS.

Twenty-one individuals were needed to decrease the antiemetic prophylaxis to zero. Significant vomiting was observed only when prophylaxis was abolished but not in previous steps employing negligible doses of prophylaxis.

CONCLUSIONS.

Our data show that when cisplatin is administered during sleep, the reduction of antiemetic prophylaxis is not followed by the expected increase in emetic toxicity. This antiemetic property of sleep is, as far as we know, unassessed in a controlled way. Further study of the clinical utility of this method in the prevention of chemotherapy related emesis is indicated.