Neuropharmacology of emesis induced by anti-cancer therapy

Abstract

Cancer patients receiving certain cytotoxic therapies can experience severe nausea and vomiting, lasting for up to five days. Conventional antiemetic treatments may be poorly effective or evoke side-effects normally unacceptable in other areas o f medicine. The recent discovery that 5-HT₃ receptor antagonists can prevent or greatly reduce severe emesis has, therefore, prompted Gareth Sanger and his co-workers to re-evaluate the neuropharmacology of vomiting. They suggest a sequence of events, evoked by anti-cancer therapies, which could form the basis for further experimental investigation.