Olanzapine Reduces Chemotherapy-induced Nausea and Vomiting Compared With Aprepitant in Myeloma Patients Receiving High-dose Melphalan Before Stem Cell Transplantation: A Retrospective Study

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is common in patients who receive high-dose melphalan as a conditioning regimen before autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. With suboptimal CINV control using an aprepitant-based antiemetic regimen, we switched to an olanzapine-based regimen. We performed a retrospective study to compare these 2 regimens and found significant improvement in acute and delayed nausea control and a reduction in the use of CINV rescue medications. Introduction: Acute and delayed chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) occurs in most patients who receive high-dose melphalan and significantly affects patients' quality of life during autologous stem cell transplantation. Faced with unsatisfactory results using an aprepitant-based regimen, an olanzapine-based regimen was initiated, with the hope of improving the incidence of acute and delayed CINV. A retrospective study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of olanzapine-versus aprepitant-based regimens for CINV prevention in adult hematopoietic stem cell recipients who received high-dose melphalan. Patients and Methods: We compared olanzapine (n = 43) to aprepitant (n = 54) and fosaprepitant (n = 20). Olanzapine was given orally at 5 mg twice daily for 5 days, aprepitant was given at 125 mg on day - 1 and 80 mg on days 0 and 1, and fosaprepitant was given at 150 mg on day - 1. The dose of 2 concomitant drugs (dexamethasone and 5-hydroxytryptamine type 3 receptor antagonist) was similar in the 2 groups. Nausea prevention was the primary endpoint. A complete response using a composite index of no emesis and no use of rescue medications was the secondary endpoint. Results: The results showed that olanzapine significantly reduced the number of patients who experienced acute (P < .0001) or delayed (P <.004) nausea and significantly reduced the use of rescue medications for acute-onset (P < .0046) and delayed-onset (P < .0001) CINV compared with aprepitant. Conclusion: Compared with fosaprepitant, olanzapine reduced the number of patients with acute (P < .0318) and delayed (P < .1519) nausea and reduced the need for rescue medications for acute-onset (P < .0643) and delayed-onset (P < .0024) CINV. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.