Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) are serious adverse effects, lowering the QOL of patients. The guideline published in 2010 provided information for proper use of antiemetic agents in patients treated with cancer chemotherapy. The risks of CINV were classified into four categories by the emetogenic potency of anti-cancer drugs and the antiemetic therapy was recommended based on the risks of CINV in the guideline. However, it was often the case that antiemetic effects were varied even though patients were treated according to the guideline in multidrug combination regimen. In this study, we tried to quantify the extent of nausea with visual analog scale (VAS) and investigated the effects of antiemetic therapy in patients treated with S1/CDDP and FP regimens, which are both categorized as the same highest risk of CINV in the guideline. As a result, in combination with radiotherapy of the FP regimen,the VAS values tended to be higher in the patients treated with non-radiotherapy of the FP regimen and the S1/CDDP regimen. In addition, the nausea was found to be prolonged in patients treated with the combination with radiotherapy of FP regimen. After the antiemetic therapy was modified according to the guideline, a significant effect of aprepitant on the prolonged nausea was not observed in the multi-drug combination regimen. In conclusion, the antiemetic effects were varied dependently on the regimens, even though those are categorized as the same risk, and VAS could be useful to quantify the nausea induced by cancer chemotherapy.
