[Assessment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting(CINV)using MASCC antiemesis tool].

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is one of the side effects causing significant psychological and physical suffering in patients receiving chemotherapy. Because CINV often impairs patients' quality of life and leads to cessation of treatments, antiemetic therapy has been thought important. Recently, the development of new antiemetic agents and the antiemetic guidelines provided by ASCO, NCCN, and MASCC etc. allow us to palliate CINV with appropriate antiemetic therapy. For appropriate antiemetic therapy, the patient must obtain accurate CINV information, particularly regarding whether it will be acute or delayed. MASCC first developed and posted the MASCC Antiemesis Tool (MAT) in 2004. The MAT is an eight-term scale for the assessment of acute and delayed nausea and vomiting, and is completed once per chemotherapy course. Although it is now validated in the US and UK and used worldwide, few reports have been available in Japan to use assessment tools including the MAT for acute and delayed CINV. We prospectively investigated the utility of the MAT. Fifteen ambulatory patients with breast cancer were subjected to evaluation, aged 29 to 73(median 58)years. In the results, the MAT allowed us to easily find patients treated with inappropriate antiemetic therapy. At the same time, it was easy to determine acute or delayed CINV, resulting in more appropriate treatment. The scale questions were unfamiliar to patients, but they clearly understood by means of a detailed explanation. Thus, it was suggested that the MAT is useful to assess antiemetic therapy. Consequently, it could contribute to completion of the chemotherapy.