Antiemetic effectiveness and safety of aprepitant in patients with hematologic malignancy receiving multiday chemotherapy.

PURPOSE Antiemetic effectiveness and safety of aprepitant in patients with hematologic malignancy receiving multiday chemotherapy were evaluated. METHODS All data were retrospectively collected from the Kyushu University Hospital's electronic medical record system. Patients age 20 years or older with hematologic malignancies who received multiday chemotherapy were included in the study. All patients received 3 mg of granisetron i.v. 30 minutes before chemotherapy administration. Patients in the aprepitant group received 125 mg of aprepitant orally 60-90 minutes before administration of the first moderately to highly emetogenic chemotherapy (day 1). On day 2 or thereafter, an 80-mg oral dose of aprepitant was administered in the morning for up to five days. The primary endpoint was the percentage of patients who achieved complete response (CR). RESULTS A total of 42 patients were treated with aprepitant and granisetron as antiemetic prophylaxis between April and December 2010 (aprepitant group), and 40 patients were treated with only granisetron between March 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010, before the introduction of aprepitant. The percentage of patients who achieved CR in the aprepitant group was significantly higher than that in the control group (p = 0.01). Factors that were significantly associated with non-CR included the prophylactic use of aprepitant and chemotherapies containing ≥4 g/m(2)/day of cytarabine. The rates of adverse drug events (ADEs) did not significantly differ between groups. CONCLUSION The addition of aprepitant to granisetron increased the antiemetic effect without influencing ADEs in patients treated with moderately to highly emetogenic multiday chemotherapy for hematologic malignancies.