Palonosetron is a 5-HT3 antagonist used in the prevention and treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). It is used for the control of delayed CINV—nausea and vomiting and there is tentative data that it may be better than granisetron. Palonosetron is administered intravenously, as a single dose, 30 minutes before chemotherapy, or as a single oral capsule one hour before chemotherapy. The oral formulation was approved on August 22, 2008 for prevention of acute CINV alone, as a large clinical trial did not show oral administration to be as effective as intravenous use against delayed CINV. Palonosetron, a highly selective and potent 5-HT(3) receptor antagonist with a strong binding affinity and a long plasma elimination half-life (approximately 40 hours), has shown efficacy in Phase II trials in preventing chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) resulting from highly emetogenic chemotherapy.
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