Aim: This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and the difference in effects of the oral neurokinin-1(NK-1) receptor antagonist aprepitant for chemotherapy-induced nausea/vomiting (CINV) in Japanese patients with gynecological cancer receiving highly emetogenic (cisplatin) and moderately emetogenic (carboplatin) chemotherapy.
Methods: Aprepitant was added during the second course of chemotherapy in Japanese patients with grade ≥ 2 (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 3.0) nausea and vomiting during the first course despite receiving antiemetic therapy (a first-generation 5-hydroxytryptamine 3 receptor antagonist + dexamethasone), and in patients who requested stronger antiemetic therapy despite only having grade 1 nausea and vomiting. The incidence of nausea and vomiting was compared between the first and second courses in each group.
Results: Ninety-six (55.5%) out of 173 patients received add-on therapy with aprepitant. There was a significant increase in the complete response (CR: no vomiting or salvage therapy) rate in the patients receiving aprepitant, with marked improvement being confirmed for delayed CINV. Stratified analysis showed that patients with delayed CINV treated with carboplatin had a significantly higher CR rate, while patients with both acute and delayed CINV treated with cisplatin had significantly higher CR rates. There was a positive correlation between the incidence of nausea and the incidence of vomiting in the patients treated with aprepitant.
Conclusion: The oral NK-1 receptor antagonist aprepitant could be effective for both acute and delayed CINV with cisplatin and for delayed CINV with carboplatin in Japanese gynecological cancer patients.
Keywords: Aprepitant; carboplatin; chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV); cisplatin; gynecological cancer.
© 2017 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.