Intractable nausea and vomiting due to gastrointestinal mucosal metastases relieved by tetrahydrocannabinol (dronabinol)

Four years following resection of a Clark's level IV malignant melanoma, a 50-year-old man developed widespread metastatic disease involving the liver bones, brain gastrointestinal mucosa, and lungs. One week after whole brain radiation therapy he was admitted to the hospital for nausea, vomiting, and pain He was treated with sever-al antiemetic drugs, but it was not until dronabinol was added that the nausea and vomiting stopped. Dronabinol was an. effective antiemetic used in combination with prochlorperazine in nausea and vomiting unresponsive to conventional antiemetics. (C) U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee, 1997.