Anticipatory nausea and vomiting: prevalence and predictors in chemotherapy patients.

One hundred and seventy-five patients selected at random were prospectively studied. All patients were assessed at least after the first cycle of treatment by a self-report questionnaire which covered the occurrence of nausea and vomiting 24 before chemotherapy, as well as information regarding 22 clinical parameters. Forty-six (26%) patients developed anticipatory nausea. 'Intolerable' posttreatment vomiting and age under 45 were statistically significant parameters (p less than 0.05) in the multivariate analysis. Twenty-one (12%) of the 175 patients experienced anticipatory vomiting. Three variables, age under 45, 'intolerable' posttreatment vomiting and more than three cycles of treatment were found to be significant (p less than 0.05). The relative risk of developing anticipatory nausea and vomiting according to combination of significant clinical predictors in the multivariate analysis is proposed. Therefore recognition of these clinical predictors may serve as a marker for patients with high risk of presenting anticipatory nausea and vomiting, who may benefit from prophylactic behavioral approaches.