The French Northern Oncology Group carried out a randomised, cross-over study comparing two anti-emetic treatment strategies in 150 chemotherapy-naive patients, receiving their first two courses of moderately-emetogenic drugs. Nausea and vomiting were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire for five days. Anti-emetic treatments consisted of granisetron (G) 3 mg intravenously (iv) before chemotherapy or ondansetron (O) 8 mg intravenously, followed by 8 mg orally every eight hours for the next three days (for a total of 9 tablets). No significant difference was detected between treatment regimens in terms of their ability to control either acute vomiting (no vomiting - G = 72%; O = 77%) or acute nausea (no nausea - G = 54%; O = 47%), nor in terms of the number of total responders, (no emesis and no nausea) on day 1 (G = 52%; O = 45%) or on days 1- 5 ( mean G - 37%; O = 32%). Furthermore, there was also no significant difference between patient preference for the two treatments, either with regard to efficacy (G = 39%; O = 34%) or tolerability (G = 29%; O = 27%). In conclusion, no difference was observed between the two treatments.