A triple-drug combination to prevent nausea and vomiting following BEAM chemotherapy before autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

OBJECTIVE: We performed a clinical study of a triple-drug combination to evaluate its efficacy to prevent both acute and delayed emesis after high-dose chemotherapy with BEAM (BCNU [carmustine]+etoposide+ARA-C [cytarabine]+melphalan) before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) by comparison with a historical control group of patients treated with dexamethasone (dex) and ondansetron or palonosetron.

METHODS: We evaluated 96 patients non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (n=54), and Hodgkin's disease (n=42). Evaluated patients received: aprepitant+palonosetron and dex. The observation period started with the initiation of chemotherapy (0 hours) and continued for 24 hours after the completion of the chemotherapy for the acute phase, and during 5 days after finishing chemotherapy for the delayed phase. The response rate to study drugs was evaluated using a four-grade scale based on the degree of control of nausea and vomiting: high, modrate, slightly effective, or not effective.

RESULTS: Patients treated with the three-drug combination showed a significantly higher response rate than those receiving palonosetron or ondasetron (+dex) during the both the acute and the delayed phases: highly effective early+late phases, 82% versus 70% versus 35%; highly effective early phase, 94% versus 70% versus 35%; highly effective late phase, 85% versus 85% versus 50%; highly+moderately effective early phase, 97% versus 70% versus 40%; highly+moderately effective late phase, 97% versus 90% versus 60%, for triple combination, palonosctron with dexamethasone and ondasetron+dex, respectively. All antiemetic regimens were well tolerated. The three-drug combination showed a similar safety profile; adverse events were generally mild and transient.

CONCLUSIONS: The triple-drug combination was more effective than ondansetron or palonosetron (+dex) treatments to prevent acute (especially) and delayed nausea and vomiting following BEAM before HSCT.