Guide helps chemo sufferers

A Costa Mesa-based pharmaceutical company has come out with a free guide about, and medicine for, chemotherapy side effects.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International partnered with Wiley Publishing Inc. and released “Managing Chemotherapy Side Effects for Dummies,” a free resource for cancer patients and their families about the vomiting and nausea that often accompanies the radiation treatment.

“We felt it was really important to provide patients with educational resources, and knowing that the readership of the ‘Dummies’ series is so high we felt that would be a unique way of providing this to patients,” Valeant spokeswoman Vicki Kelemen said.

This comes just a few days after the company announced the market availability of Cesamet Capsules, a synthetic cannabinoid — an anti-vomiting and nausea drug chemically similar to the active ingredient in marijuana called tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC.

“This class of anti-emetic drug is underutilized,” said City of Hope physician and co-author of Valeant’s “Dummies” book Dr. Neal Slatkin. “I think that it’s not the first drug you reach for in this case, but for patients who have these problems and aren’t responding to standard therapies, these are very valuable adjuncts.”

The book has educational resources, including drug information about Cesamet and other alternatives, as well as a list of organizations that cancer patients may want to reach out to, including the American Cancer Society and People Living With Cancer.

Slatkin and his co-author Michelle Rhiner have worked at City of Hope in supportive care, pain management and palliative care for about 25 years and wrote the book as a modification of a chapter that appears in “Chemotherapy and Radiation for Dummies.”

“In chemotherapy, we talk about toxicity because they are toxic drugs and many patients understand that and therefore will come to believe that the symptoms they experience are part and parcel to the chemotherapy experience and they have to grin and bear it,” Slatkin said. “What we’re trying to do is inform people that, yes, these are common symptoms, but we can treat it.”

Valeant acquired Cesamet from Eli Lilly and Co. in 2004 and received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in May. The synthetic drug has been available in Canada since 2000.