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Introduction With the growing number of oral targeted therapies being approved for use in cancer therapy, the potential for long-term administration of these drugs to cancer patients is expanding. The use of these drugs in the home setting has the potential to expose family members and caregivers to them either through direct contact with the drugs or indirectly by exposure to the parent compounds and/or their active metabolites in contaminated patient's waste. Methods A systematic literature review was performed and the known adverse health effect of 32 oral targeted therapeutics is summarized. In particular, the carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, and embryo-foetal toxicity, along with the route of excretion were evaluated. Results Carcinogenicity testing has not been performed on most of the oral targeted therapeutics and the genotoxicity data are mixed. However, the majority of these drugs exhibit adverse reproductive effects, some of which are severe. Currently available data does not permit the possibility of a health hazard from inappropriate handling of drugs and contaminated patients waste to be ignored, especially in a long-term home setting. Further research is needed to understand these issues. Conclusions With the expanding use of targeted therapies in the home setting, family members and caregivers, especially those of reproductive risk age, are, potentially at risk. Overall basic education and related precautions should be taken to protect family members and caregivers from indirect or direct exposure from these drugs. Further investigations and discussion on this subject is warranted.

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Nausea and vomiting are among the most distressing side-effects of chemoradiotherapy. Conditioning protocols for patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation consist of highly emetogenic high-dose chemotherapy with or without total body irradiation. Marked improvement in controlling emesis and nausea was achieved by the introduction of a new class of antiemetic drugs, the 5HT3 serotonin-receptor antagonists. Tropisetron is a highly potent, selective antagonist of 5HT3 receptors. Previous studies have used a single 5-mg dose i.v. of tropisetron to control nausea and vomiting in cancer patients. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a single daily dose of tropisetron in controlling emesis in patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy (with or without total body irradiation) prior to bone marrow transplantation. The anti-emetic efficacy was investigated in a non-homogeneous cohort in a prospective and open study. Of 11 patients evaluated, 9 (81%) showed complete or major control, 1 (9%) minor control and 1 (9%) failed to respond. The most common adverse events reported during the study included diarrhea (46%) and headache (18%), no patients being withdrawn because of side-effects. Our data suggest that a single 5-mg i.v. dose of tropisetron is safe and effective in preventing chemotherapy-induced emesis in patients receiving bone marrow transplantation conditioning. A larger randomized study is warranted to confirm our preliminary results.

The antiemetic response and side effects resulting from treatment with methylprednisolone (MPA) given on two different dose schedules were evaluated in 20 women with breast cancer who were undergoing chemotherapy consisting of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF). This randomized, crossover, double-blind study compared the antiemetic efficacy of a single dose of 125 mg MPN with that of two such doses. The study demonstrated the superiority of the latter protocol in preventing CMF-induced nausea and vomiting. The rate of antiemetic response to single vs double doses was as to follows: complete protection, 17% vs 30%; partial and minimal protection, 39% vs 55%; and no protection, 44% vs 15% of the courses, respectively (P = 0.0087). No difference in the antiemetic response rate was found between the first and the second course. Treatment with MPN was well tolerated, and no difference in the incidence of side effects was found between the single-dose and the double-dose schedule. We recommend the use of two doses of 125 mg MPN as prophylactic antiemetic treatment in breast-cancer patients receiving CMF chemotherapy.