In the US, there are approximately 1.5 million new cancer cases diagnosed each year. More than 1.2 million Americans undergo chemotherapy-radiation treatments annually resulting in more than 6 million patient cycles.

Nausea and vomiting (NV) are widely recognized as frequent and serious side effects for patients undergoing treatment. The prominent role of CINV in reducing a patient’s quality of life has been well documented. As many as 80% of patients will experience some level of nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy, and last up to five days following their treatment.

Despite advances in anti-emetic drugs (such as the 5HT3’s, NK1’s, and serotonin antagonists), development of extensive patient protocols, and heavy use in patients for every cycle, CINV still remains poorly controlled.

In fact, many studies have shown that more than 50% of patients will receive a cocktail of multiple anti-emetic drugs and still experience breakthrough and failure .This is particularly true for patients undergoing highly emetogenic or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (more than half of all patient cycles).

The effects of this failure can be significant, and in some cases, the effects of CINV can be so debilitating that patients have to discontinue chemotherapy treatments. Furthermore all of the current ‘”best in class “ anti-emetic medications can have significant side effects and co-morbidity profiles, and many have “black box” warnings that can significantly hinder patient outcomes.