Abstract: Objective · To investigate antiemetic effect of aprepitant for moderately chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in patients with gastrointestinal cancer.  Methods · From 2014 July to 2015 August, 130 cases of gastrointestinal cancer patients were collected in Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, who received moderate emetogenic risk of chemotherapy for at least four courses. One hundred and nine patients were treated with aprepitant, palonosetron and dexamethasone on day 1, and aprepitant and dexamethasone on day 2 and 3. Twenty-one patients only received aprepitant and dexamethasone on day 1 and dexamethasone on day 2 and 3 in the first course of chemotherapy. During subsequent courses of chemotherapy they received aprepitant and treated in the same way as 109 patients. MASCC antiemetic tool (MAT) was used to evaluate the intensity of nausea. The primary endpoint was complete response (CR, no emesis and use of no rescue antiemetics) during the overall study phase (0-120 h after chemotherapy) at the second course. The secondary endpoint was complete protection (CP, CR plus no significant nausea) during the overall, acute (0-24 h), and delayed (24-120 h) phases at the second course.  Results · The CR rates were 90.0%, 94.6% and 90.8% of patients in the overall, acute and delayed phases, respectively. The corresponding CP rates were 83.8%, 87.8% and 84.6 %, respectively. The CR rate increased from 42.9% to 57.1% during acute phase and increased from 9.5% to 90.5% during delayed phase for 21 patients after treatment with aprepitant. The main adverse reactions include constipation, anorexia and hiccups.  Conclusion · Aprepitant combined with palonosetron and dexamethasone can effectively prevent moderately chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in patients with gastrointestinal cancer. Aprepitant therapy can effectively maintain antiemetic effect in patients with many chemotherapy courses.

Key words: aprepitant, palonosetron, dexamethasone, chemotherapy, side effect