A phase II, randomized study of aprepitant in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting associated with moderately emetogenic chemotherapies in colorectal cancer patients.

The present study aimed to study the efficacy of aprepitant in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in patients receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (MEC) for colorectal cancer (CRC), and comprised a multicenter, phase II, open-label, randomized, parallel comparative study conducted as part of the Kagoshima aprepitant study for colon cancer in Japan. Patients with advanced or recurrent CRC were treated with standard MEC regimens (FOLFOX, XELOX or FOLFIRI) and received either standard chemotherapy [5-hydroxytryptamine-3 receptor antagonist (5-HT3RA) + dexamethasone] or aprepitant regimen chemotherapy (5-HT3 RA + reduced-dose dexamethasone + aprepitant). The primary endpoint of the present study was the proportion of patients who achieved a complete response (CR) during the overall, acute, and delayed phases of the first planned chemotherapy cycle. Secondary endpoints were complete protection, the proportions of patients without emetic episodes or nausea, patients with no more than moderate nausea during the overall, acute and delayed phases, and the time to treatment failure. The CR rates in the overall, acute and delayed phases were similar in the aprepitant and the standard-regimen groups. Additionally, there were no significant differences in secondary endpoints between the two groups. In summary, aprepitant in combination with 5-HT3 RA and reduced-dose corticosteroids was well tolerated and effective in preventing CINV associated with moderately emetogenic antitumor agents in Japanese patients with CRC.

[Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for Japanese multiple myeloma patients: results of a feasibility study].

A feasibility study on high-dose therapy with autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (HDT/PBSCT) was performed in Japanese patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Twenty evaluable patients younger than 65 years old with stage II/III MM were enrolled in this study. Three courses of VAD were used as initial chemotherapy. High-dose etoposide or cyclophosphamide followed by G-CSF was used for PBSCH, and 1.2-89.3 (median 23.4) x 106/kg of CD34+ cells were collected. Single (11 patients) or tandem (9 patients) HDT with melphalan (MEL) 200 mg/m2 or MEL 140 mg/m2 plus TBI 10 Gy were performed. The incidence of grade 4 toxicity (COG) was 10% and treatment-related mortality was 5%. Complete response and tumor reduction of more than 75% were obtained in 4 (21%) and 16 (84%) out of 19 patients, respectively. The actuarial 3-year overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) after PBSCT/HDT were 65.6% and 22.0%, respectively. The median EFS duration was 18 months. These preliminary results indicated that HDT/PBSCT is feasible for Japanese MM patients. A prospective randomized clinical trial will be required to assess the efficacy.