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British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1994 Dec;70(6):1161–1164. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1994.465

Comparison of granisetron alone and granisetron plus dexamethasone in the prophylaxis of cytotoxic-induced emesis.

J Carmichael 1, E M Bessell 1, A L Harris 1, A W Hutcheon 1, P J Dawes 1, S Daniels 1, E M Bessel 1
PMCID: PMC2033694  PMID: 7981069

Abstract

Two hundred and seventy-eight adult chemonaive patients, receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy were randomly allocated to receive either intravenous (i.v.) granisetron 3 mg plus i.v. dexamethasone 8 mg or i.v. granisetron 3 mg plus i.v. placebo dexamethasone prior to chemotherapy. Eight-two per cent of all patients recruited were female, and 91% of all patients consumed less than 10 units of alcohol per week, suggesting a study population with an increased risk of nausea and vomiting. In the first 24 h 85% of patients who received granisetron plus dexamethasone were complete responders compared with 75.9% of the patients receiving granisetron alone (P = 0.053). There were statistically significant improvements in complete response over 7 days (P = 0.029) and in the numbers of patients receiving rescue antiemetic (P = 0.0004). Toxicity was minimal with no significant differences between treatment groups. These results confirm the antiemetic activity of granisetron and show that it has an additive effect in combination with dexamethasone.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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