Assessment of chemotherapy-induced emesis and evaluation of a reduced-dose intravenous ondansetron regimen in pediatric outpatients with leukemia.

OBJECTIVE

To measure the severity of nausea and vomiting in pediatric patients receiving intravenous or intrathecal chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia and to evaluate the effectiveness of 2 intravenous doses of ondansetron for this condition.

DESIGN

Patients were surveyed during repeated treatments of maintenance chemotherapy, given with or without ondansetron, using a repeated measures pretest/posttest design.

SETTING

Outpatient pediatric oncology clinic.

PATIENT POPULATION

Sixteen pediatric patients (aged 2-15 years, mean 6.2) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

METHODS

Surveys to assess nausea and vomiting and the extent of interference with daily activities were administered following emetogenic chemotherapy with or without ondansetron.

RESULTS

A total of 255 surveys following emetogenic chemotherapy with daunorubicin, cyclophosphamide, carmustine, and etoposide and cytarabine combined, as well as intrathecal therapy with methotrexate, hydrocortisone, and cytarabine, were analyzed. Analysis was performed on surveys of 149 courses without antiemetic therapy and 106 courses after 2 doses of ondansetron 0.15 mg/kg iv. The most emetogenic chemotherapy treatment was the etoposide/cytarabine combination (p < 0.05). Ondansetron completely protected patients (defined as no nausea or no vomiting) during most (> 50%) of the chemotherapy treatments, except for those in which cyclophosphamide was used. Ondansetron provided greater control of nausea and vomiting, a higher percentage of complete protection, and decreased the daily activity interference rating for carmustine and etoposide/cytarabine compared with courses of chemotherapy without antiemetics (p < 0.05). Two intravenous doses of ondansetron also provided durable antiemetic efficacy over time for the most emetogenic chemotherapy treatment (etoposide/cytarabine).

CONCLUSIONS

Etoposide/cytarabine proved to be the most emetogenic of the chemotherapy treatments studied. A reduced-dose regimen of intravenous ondansetron was shown to be an effective antiemetic for the outpatient treatments with etoposide/cytarabine and carmustine, but not with cyclophosphamide.