Olanzapine appears to reduce acute and delayed chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting after administering high-dose melphalan in patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation, according to a retrospective study involving 117 individuals. Participants received olanzapine orally 5 mg twice daily for 5 days (n=43); aprepitant 125 mg on day 1 and 80 mg days 0,1 (n=54); or fosaprepitant 150mg on day 1 (n=20). Investigators looked at how well the regimens prevented nausea and led to a complete response. Among the results:

• Substantially fewer olanzapine patients experienced acute or delayed nausea.
• They also relied less on rescue medications for acute and delayed onset chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting compared with patients on the other regimens.

The authors noted the importance of their findings, given that current guidelines do not address chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in the stem cell transplantation setting.