Antiemetic placebo: Reduce adverse drug interactions between chemotherapeutic agents and antiemetic drugs in cancer patients

SummaryCancer patients receiving chemotherapy often require a wide range of drugs to manage symptoms of their cancer. The adverse drug interactions are common in the field of medical oncology. Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) continues to have a considerable effect on the physical and psychological well-being of patients with cancer, despite significant advances in antiemetic drugs since the 1990s. Fortunately, evidence-based interventions suggested that to a certain extent antiemetic effects can be achieved by use of placebo appropriately. Placebo effect can be reinforced by conferring much meaning. Thus physician can replace antiemetic drugs with reinforced meaningful antiemetic placebo to get better prevention and treatment efficacy for CINV while reduce the unnecessary adverse drug interactions induced by antiemetic drugs and chemotherapeutic agents.