[Management of vomiting induced by polychemotherapy in Hodgkin's disease]

Sixty patients with Hodgkin's disease were treated with a polychemotherapy regimen including very emetic dacarbazine and adriamycin in addition to bleomycin and vincristine on 622 treatment days during the last 10 years. Nausea in 97% and severe vomiting in 91% were observed during the treatment causing considerable distress to patients which led to patient noncompliance in 26.6%. Among the used antiemetic agents haloperidol was less active than high-dose metoclopramide alone or with high-dose methylprednisolone which were extremely effective. The control and prevention of drug-induced emesis is a major problem for cancer patients and their oncologists. The present situation and the home tasks are also discussed on the basis of literature and their observations.