Trial Design
The PantoCIN trial will test the ability of a cheap, widely available drug to prevent two of chemotherapy’s most unpleasant side-effects: delayed nausea and vomiting.
This study explores whether a commonly used medication called pantoprazole can help prevent delayed nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy for early breast cancer.
Delayed nausea, and occasionally vomiting, can occur after breast cancer chemotherapy, affecting the quality of life. A potential cause of these delayed side effects is that the chemotherapy may cause stomach irritation. Pantoprazole is commonly used to treat stomach irritation by reducing stomach acid, which may, in turn, improve nausea and/or vomiting.
Patients undergoing breast cancer chemotherapy before or after primary surgery will be invited to participate in the study. They will be asked how much nausea or vomiting they have with and without pantoprazole from day two until five after they receive chemotherapy. All participants will still receive all of the usual anti-sickness medications, which are very effective in preventing sickness in the first 24 hours after treatment, but not for delayed symptoms.
Information from the study may lead to a change in practice with patients using pantoprazole to reduce the risks of delayed nausea and vomiting.
The PantoCIN trial, lead by medical oncologists Richard Isaacs and Navin Wewala from Palmerston North Hospital, will recruit 160 patients at up to ten hospitals around New Zealand.
Recruiting sites: Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, New Plymouth, Hawkes Bay and Whangarei.
Please click her for full trial information.
Results (reported 2023)
The results showed that pantoprazole is effective as a prophylactic treatment against delayed chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in patients receiving adjuvant or neoadjuvant beast cancer chemotherapy. Read more here.
