Abstract
Controlling of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is very important for the continuation of chemotherapy, especially for outpatients. CINV can significantly affect a patient's quality of life, leading to poor compliance with further chemotherapy treatment. In this retrospective study, we investigated the incidence of CINV induced by mFOLFOX6 and FOLFIRI in 59 outpatients (32 males and 27 females) with advanced colorectal cancer to evaluate CINV severity using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v.3.0. The incidence of nausea in the female group receiving FOLFIRI (grade 1: 66.7% and grade 2: 20.0%) was significantly higher than that in the male group (grade 1: 23.1% and grade 2: 7.7%, p=0.0066). The incidence of nausea in the younger (<63 years old) group receiving FOLFIRI (grade 1: 57.1% and grade 2: 28.6%) was significantly higher than that in the older (≧63 years old) group (grade 1: 35.7%, p=0.0031). Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that patients who were female or younger had a significantly higher incidence of nausea or vomiting than patients who were male or older, respectively, when treated with FOLFIRI. This suggests that gender (female) and age (younger) are factors predicting poor antiemetic control in outpatients receiving FOLFIRI, but not those treated with mFOLFOX6. Information on such predictive factors should be useful to promote the effectiveness of cancer chemotherapy.
