American health & drug benefits
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Am Health Drug Benefits · Jan 2014
Outcomes Associated with 5-HT3-RA Therapy Selection in Patients with Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting: A Retrospective Claims Analysis.
Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is a common side effect of chemotherapy, and may present during the administration of chemotherapy (ie, acute CINV) or within 25 to 120 hours of chemotherapy (ie, delayed CINV). Preventing CINV with the initiation of chemotherapy is important, because the risk for CINV in future chemotherapy cycles increases if CINV occurs in the first or previous treatment cycle. Inadequately controlled CINV is associated with increased resource utilization and costs, particularly for patients receiving highly or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy. ⋯ Current guidelines support the use of 5-HT3-RA agents for the prevention of CINV. As shown in this analysis, the selection of a specific 5-HT3-RA agent has a clinical and subsequent economic impact on patients with cancer experiencing delayed CINV. Specifically, patients receiving therapy with palonosetron had a lower incidence of delayed CINV and incurred lower overall costs.