Whereas fluoxymesterone clearly seems to be an inferior choice for treating cancer anorexia/cachexia, megestrol acetate and dexamethasone have similar appetite stimulating efficacy but differing toxicity profiles.

Sedation may be a dose-limiting side-effect of opioid therapy in some cancer patients. This study was designed to evaluate further the use of the psychostimulant, methylphenidate, an agent that has been reported to counter-act opioid-induced sedation, in patients with cancer-related pain. Patients receiving a stable dose of an opioid for cancer-related pain were recruited for this randomized, double-blind, crossover clinical trial. In addition to their regular dose of narcotics, they received 5 days of methylphenidate followed by 5 days of placebo, or vice versa. Our data did not definitively demonstrate any statistically significant benefit for methylphenidate, but did suggest that this drug could mildly decrease narcotic-induced drowsiness and could increase night-time sleep. These data, in conjunction with other published data, suggest that methylphenidate can counteract narcotic-induced daytime sedation to a limited degree.

Nurses can inform symptomatic women that an effective nonhormonal alternative exists to control their hot flashes.

To determine the efficacy of transdermal clonidine for alleviating post-orchiectomy hot flashes, a randomized, double-blind, crossover clinical trial was designed including 70 men with a history of prostate cancer who had undergone a medical or surgical orchiectomy and were suffering from hot flashes. The results of this study demonstrated that clonidine did not significantly decrease hot flash frequency or severity. Future research is necessary to find effective means of alleviating hot flashes in post-orchiectomy patients.