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 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 2 until 5 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.
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer type in women in New Zealand and has the second highest mortality (Ministry of Health NZ) Many women with early breast cancer still receive chemotherapy, before or after surgery and delayed nausea is a particular challenge. Ensuring tolerable therapy is critical to improving outcomes, by enabling patients to complete optimal anti-cancer therapy and to improve quality of life during therapy. Despite recent advances in antiemetic regimens, recent trials showed that rates of delayed Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting (CINV) are is in excess of 50%, with significant impacts on quality of life during treatment. This suggests that different mechanisms than those targeted by centrally acting anti-emetics account for such symptoms. There is strong evidence that chemotherapy regimens can result in gastrointestinal mucosal injury and dyspepsia. A number of studies have shown chemotherapy-induced dyspepsia can be relieved by a proton pump inhibitor, but none have reported their use as prophylaxis for delayed CINV, which may be a linked symptom. Proton pump inhibitors are widely used in the treatment of non-malignant dyspeptic conditions and are the most potent medications at reducing gastric acid secretions. They are considered safe in short-term use and are commonly used in clinical practice in cancer patients as well as the wider population. The pharmacokinetics Pantoprazole make it the ideal PPI for this study. The experience of New Zealand Medical Oncologists is that delayed nausea is often completely resolved by the delayed use of a PPI when symptoms occur. In this study we hope to see a 30% difference in the rates of delayed nausea by using a drug which is readily available and of very low cost. This will be the first time it has been used as preventive therapy in this setting. If this benefit occurs, it would significantly improve the treatment journey and may improve compliance to anti-cancer therapies.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
160
Proton pump inhibitor, drug action is to irreversibly block the hydrogen-potassium adenosine triphosphatase enzyme system (the 'proton pump') of the gastric parietal cell. This reduces basal and stimulated gastric acid secretion therefore raising gastric pH.
Matched placebo
Auckland City Hospital
Auckland, New Zealand
Christchurch Hospital
Christchurch, New Zealand
Dunedin Hospital
Dunedin, New Zealand
Waikato Hospital
Hamilton, New Zealand
Taranaki Base Hospital
New Plymouth, New Zealand
Palmerston North Hospital
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Rotorua Hospital
Rotorua, New Zealand
Tauranga Hospital
Tauranga, New Zealand
Wellington Hospital
Wellington, New Zealand
Whangarei Hospital
Whangarei, New Zealand
Reduce the incidence of delayed CINV in patients receiving adjuvant or neoadjuvant breast cancer chemotherapy
To determine whether Pantoprazole can reduce the incidence of delayed CINV in patients receiving adjuvant or neoadjuvant breast cancer chemotherapy (as measured on day 5 using the MASCC Antiemesis Tool (MAT) to assess nausea over days 2-5 of each chemotherapy cycle) as compared to placebo. Specifically, the primary endpoint will be the complete absence of both nausea and vomiting during days 2-5.
Time frame: Measured on day 5, after chemotherapy
Nausea MAT scores
Whether Pantoprazole improves nausea MAT scores over days 2-5
Time frame: Days 2-5 following chemotherapy for cycle 1 and 2 (each cycle is either 14 or 21 days)
Vomiting MAT scores
Whether Pantoprazole reduces the number of episodes of vomiting (MAT) over days 2-5
Time frame: Days 2-5 following chemotherapy for cycle 1 and 2 (each cycle is either 14 or 21 days)
Heartburn improvement
Whether Pantoprazole improves heartburn score (measured using the FSSG for reflux and/or dyspepsia) as self-reported on day 5 regarding days 2-5.
Time frame: Days 2-5 following chemotherapy for cycle 1 and 2 (each cycle is either 14 or 21 days)
Heartburn and Nausea scores
Whether FSSG scores (heartburn) are associated with the MAT nausea scores reported by the patient over days 2-5.
Time frame: Days 2-5 following chemotherapy for cycle 1 and 2 (each cycle is either 14 or 21 days), using a regression model, with allowance for a possible non-linear relationship.
Use of breakthrough medications
Whether Pantoprazole lowers the requirement for breakthrough medications (as self-recorded by the patients on days 2-5).
Time frame: Days 2-5 following chemotherapy for cycle 1 and 2 (each cycle is either 14 or 21 days)
Patient preference
Whether Pantoprazole is preferred by patients over Placebo (by using a patient preference survey at the end of cycle 2).
Time frame: end of chemotherapy cycle 2 (cycle 2 is either 14 or 21 days)
Adverse events
To assess whether adverse events (including hypomagnesemia, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and headache as defined by CT CAE version 4.03) are more common on Pantoprazole than on Placebo.
Time frame: From date of consent to 28 days after the last study treatment
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