Colorectal of cancer is the second cause of death both in men and women in USA.
Nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy is a major effect that experienced by
cancer patients. Research by Rudolph (2007) stated that are many new
effectiveness antiemetic drugs, however nausea and vomiting are still difficult to
handle by most patients. In some cases, nausea and vomiting can cause
cancelation of chemotherapy, reduction of dose and termination of therapy. This
research was aimed to examine the effectiveness of antiemetic drugs in treating
nausea and vomiting in colorectal cancer patients and to determine the relation
between risk factors and responses of the patients. This research is an
observational analytic study that was carried out in Prof. Dr Margono Soekardjo
Purwokerto hospital, started from December 2014 until February 2015. The
patients who received chemotherapy was interviewed and given the checklist
sheets to bring home to record the events of nausea and vomiting for 5 days. On
the sixth day, the patients were interviewed again by telephone or by visiting their
home. Effectiveness of antiemetic protocol was determined using National Cancer
Institute-Common Toxicity Criteria (NCI-CTC). In this research, 22 patients were
the inclusion criteria. All patients received pre chemotherapy antiemetics drugs
that selected according to the combination of ranitidine, dexamethasone, and
ondansetron IV. After chemotherapy, all patients were given ondansetron oral. As
much as 86,36% patients who received chemotherapy with moderate
emetogenicity could manage the nausea and 86,36% could manage the vomiting
in acute phase. Furthermore, 81,81% patients who received the chemotherapy
drugs with low emetogenicity could manage the nausea and 59,09% could manage
the vomiting in delayed phase. In this research, risk factors such as age, gender,
cycle and history of motion sickness didn’t determine the occurrence of nausea
and vomiting in patients with colorectal cancer. Results from this study showed
that patients who received antiemetics with moderate emetogenicity, effectively
could manage the nausea 1,4 times better as compared to patients who received
antiemetics with low emetogenicity drugs. Moreover patients who received
antiemetics with moderate emetogenicity, effectively could manage the vomiting
4,4 times better as compared to patients who received antiemetics with low
emetogenicity drugs.