Health and Quality of Life Outcomes BioMed Central Review Open Access Impact of Nausea and Vomiting on Quality of Life in Cancer Patients During Chemotherapy Enzo Ballatori*†1 and Fausto Roila†2 Address: 1Medical Statistics Unit, Dept. of Internal Medicine and Public Health, University, P. le Tommasi 2, L'Aquila, Italy and 2Medical Oncology Division, Policlinico Hospital, Via Brunamonti 51, 06122 Perugia, Italy Email: Enzo Ballatori* - ; Fausto Roila - * Corresponding author †Equal contributors Published: 17 September 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003, 1:46 This article is available from: Received: 30 July 2003 Accepted: 17 September 2003 © 2003 Ballatori and Roila; licensee BioMed Central Ltd | BioMed Central Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Review Open Access Impact of Nausea and Vomiting on Quality of Life in Cancer Patients During Chemotherapy Enzo Ballatori - 1 and Fausto Roila-2 Address 1 Medical Statistics Unit Dept. of Internal Medicine and Public Health University P. le Tommasi 2 L Aquila Italy and 2Medical Oncology Division Policlinico Hospital Via Brunamonti 51 06122 Perugia Italy Email Enzo Ballatori - Fausto Roila - Corresponding author fEqual contributors Published 17 September 2003 Received 30 July 2003 Accepted 17 September 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003 1 46 This article is available from http content 1 1 46 2003 Ballatori and Roila licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose provided this notice is preserved along with the article s original URL. Abstract It is commonly claimed that the nausea and vomiting accompanying cytotoxic chemotherapy have a negative impact on health-related quality of life. While this may seem self-evident until a few years ago there was little empirical data demonstrating that the failure to control postchemotherapy emesis affects aspects of quality of life. In spite of their limitations several observational studies showed that nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy induced a decrease in health-related quality of life with respect to patients without nausea and vomiting. This has also been demonstrated after the adjustment for health-related quality of life before chemotherapy that is an important prognostic factor of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Furthermore one study suggests that the optimal time of assessment of quality of life to evaluate the impact of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting is day 4 if a 3-day recall period is used or day 8 when the recall period is 7 days. In double-blind studies .
