Pilot Study of Olanzapine and Aprepitant to Prevent Nausea and Vomiting in Children Receiving Chemotherapy

• Feasibility of Recruitment and Data Collection. [ Time Frame: Approximately 1 year after study opens, at the conclusion of data collection. Participants will be followed during 2 cycles of chemotherapy, an expected average of 6 weeks. Data will be collected over 5 days during each cycle. ]
  Primary objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of recruitment and data collection for conducting a larger trial. Recruitment and data collection will be feasible if at least 20 subjects can be recruited in 1 year and there is a 90% form completion rate.
  
  

• Complete Response in Overall Phase [ Time Frame: Participants will be followed during 2 cycles of chemotherapy, an expected average of 6 weeks. Data will be collected over 5 days during each cycle. ]
  This will measure what percentage of patients have a complete response (no emesis or use of breakthrough medications) in the overall phase (0-120 hours).
  
  
• Complete Response in Acute Phase [ Time Frame: Participants will be followed during 2 cycles of chemotherapy, an expected average of 6 weeks. Data will be collected over 5 days during each cycle. ]
  This will measure what percentage of patients have a complete response (no emesis or use of breakthrough medications) in the acute phase (0-24 hours).
  
  
• Complete Response in Delayed Phase [ Time Frame: Participants will be followed during 2 cycles of chemotherapy, an expected average of 6 weeks. Data will be collected over 5 days during each cycle. ]
  This will measure what percentage of patients have a complete response (no emesis or use of breakthrough medications) in the delayed phase (25-120 hours).
  
  
• Good Control of Nausea [ Time Frame: Participants will be followed during 2 cycles of chemotherapy, an expected average of 6 weeks. Data will be collected over 5 days during each cycle. ]

  Good control of nausea will be ratings <25 on visual analog scale by parents and <2 on baxter retching faces scale by patients. Will look at the proportions of patients with good control of nausea.

  The visual analog scale ranged from 0-100, with 0 being no nausea and 100 being very very severe nausea. The Baxter retching faces scale ranged from 0-10 using only even numbers (0,2,4,6,8,10) and each number has a corresponding face depicting someone experiencing varying levels of nausea, with 0 being no nausea and 10 being a picture of face vomiting.

  
  

• Number of Participants With Adverse Events. [ Time Frame: Ongoing, throughout the study. Will be fully evaluated in approximately 1 year, at the conclusion of data collection. Each patient will be followed during 2 cycles of chemotherapy, an expected average of 6 weeks. ]
  Olanzapine will be considered tolerable if less than 10% of patients experience a grade III or IV adverse event attributable to olanzapine.
  
  

This will be a pilot study, designed as a randomized, crossover study comparing olanzapine and aprepitant in pediatric oncology patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC). The primary objective is to determine the feasibility of recruitment and data collection for conducting a larger trial aimed at comparing olanzapine and aprepitant as antiemetic regimens and establishing efficacy of this regimens for pediatric patients receiving HEC. Secondary objectives are to obtain preliminary data regarding the effectiveness of olanzapine and aprepitant as well as the tolerability of olanzapine in the pediatric oncology population.

Each patient must be planned to undergo at least 2 cycles of the same cycle of HEC. Each patient will be randomized to receive olanzapine or aprepitant in the first cycle of chemotherapy, and then will receive the other agent in a second cycle of chemotherapy. Patients will also receive ondansetron and dexamethasone with each cycle. Patients with CNS tumors will not receive dexamethasone. Response will be measured objectively recording number of emesis and use of breakthrough medications. The medications chosen for breakthrough medications will be at the treating physicians discretion. A complete response will be no episodes of emesis or use of breakthrough medications. A partial response is one or less episodes of emesis and one or less use of breakthrough medications. Nausea will be measured based on parent and patient scales and will be a separate measure, not included in the compete or partial response.