Anti-nausea drug a boon for cancer patients

Patients with breast, pancreatic and certain other types of cancer may survive longer if given an anti-nausea drug during surgery, finds a new study. The study, presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2021 annual meeting, indicated that three months after cancer surgery, more than three times as many patients who did not receive dexamethasone died compared to those who received the drug.

"Dexamethasone has positive and negative effects — it inhibits cancer growth but also suppresses the immune system," said researcher Maximilian Schaefer from the Harvard Medical School, Boston. Dexamethasone is given to patients to prevent nausea and vomiting after surgery and during chemotherapy.

The research team found that dexamethasone can improve mid-to-longterm outcomes in patients with nonimmunogenic cancers (those that don't provoke a strong immune response), such as sarcoma and cancers of the breast and uterus ovary, oesophagus, pancreas, thyroid, bones and joints. —IANS