Expectation and occurrence of postchemotherapy side effects: nausea and vomiting

Although nausea and vomiting are among the most disruptive chemotherapy side effects, little is known about patients' expectations before therapy and their experience after chemotherapy. A stratified sample of 329 subjects on nine chemotherapy regimens were asked to list their expected symptoms and level of distress. The patients listed a total of 524 responses and 28 different symptoms. This paper focuses on the symptoms of nausea and vomiting. A statistically significant relationship (P = 0.015) was found between the patients' expectations of symptom experience and their expectations of symptom distress. No significant relationship was found between the expectation of the symptom and the actual symptom experience. These findings support the need for educational interventions that provide hopeful but realistic expectations of the unknown events for patients with cancer.