Zofran With Chemotherapy

Patients who suffer from cancer and undergo chemotherapy know that nausea and vomiting is one of the most common side effects of the treatment, although some forms of chemotherapy are worse than others in this regard. Nausea is simply feeling sick to your stomach while vomiting is the act of actually throwing up. In general Zofran is much more effective for preventing vomiting than it is for completely relieving the effects of nausea in chemotherapy patients.

Usually it’s much easier to prevent the feelings of nausea which leads to vomiting than to try and treat them once they have already started. Zofran can be used to prevent nausea and vomiting and isn’t as effective at treating them once they’ve already begun. For this reason patients will typically take Zofran 1-2 hours prior to their chemotherapy session.

Zofran Combined with Other Medications

Although Zofran can be quite effective by itself, your doctor may recommend combining other drugs to help prevent nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy. The type of medications chosen to treat your nausea and vomiting will typically be based on what type of chemotherapy you’re undergoing as well as any past experiences you’ve have with nausea and vomiting while on chemotherapy.

How Does Zofran Prevent Nausea & Vomiting with Chemotherapy

The main reason that your body experiences nausea and vomiting as a result of chemotherapy treatments is due to increased levels of serotonin in the body which is a direct respond to the chemotherapy treatment. Zofran can help prevent nausea and vomiting by blocking serotonin at key receptors in the body which control nausea.

Serotonin has many different effects in the body and different serotonin receptors are responsible for the various effects of serotonin. Serotonin has a role in disorders like depression and migraine headaches, although Zofran has no effect on the receptors responsible for these conditions. This means Zofran will have little effect on these conditions or the medications taken to treat them.

Zofran Dosage with Chemotherapy

The dosage of Zofran you are recommended by your physician will be influenced by a number of factors including your age, what you’re being treated for, other medical conditions as well as other medications you are currently taking.

Dosage will also depend on the type of chemotherapy you are undergoing as well as how much of a risk you are at for experiencing nausea and vomiting. With high risk chemotherapy you may take as much as 24 mg of Zofran 30 minutes before your treatment. With medium risk chemotherapy you may only have to take an 8 mg tablet twice a day to help control nausea and vomiting.

Children 12 and above can take the same dose as an adult while those aged 4 to 11 will only take about 4 mg of Zofran three times a day. The first dose should always be taken 30 minutes before chemotherapy begins, 4 hours later and then 8 hours after that and then three times daily for the next 2 to 3 days following chemotherapy.