In this minireview the authors examine and discuss the radioprotective compounds and the new combination
therapies for the prophylaxis of radiation-induced
emesis. Radiation-induced
emesis is an important secondary effect of this anticancer treatment and it represents one of the causes of
therapy interruption and decay of life quality before the introduction of optimal control of radiation-induced
emesis with new
antiemetic drugs which ensure the continuance of
radiotherapy and avoid time breaks, that could negatively influence the efficacy of anticancer treatment. The incidence, the severity or the latency of
radiotherapy-induced
nausea and
vomiting are correlated both with the treatment features (fractions, total dose, irradiation site) and with the main clinical characteristics of the patients. In contrast to the very extensive literature on the prevention of
chemotherapy-induced
emesis, relatively few studies about the prevention of
nausea and
vomiting in patients submitted to
radiotherapy have been published. Among
antiemetic drugs for the prevention of
emesis,
benzamides and in particular
metoclopramide, are widely used in clinical practice. The introduction of selective
5-HT3 antagonists in clinical practice produced an important improvement in control of
chemotherapy induced
emesis, but few published studies were aimed at evaluating the efficacy of these drugs in the prophylaxis of
nausea and
vomiting due to radiation exposure. We herewith present a brief summary of Clinical practice guidelines for the use of
antiemetics in anticancer
therapy recently published by ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology).