Role of octreotide in chemo and radiotherapy induced diarrhea

An international, quasi-experimental, clinical trial of 'before-and-after type' was conducted to find out the role of octreotide in chemo and radiotherapy-induced diarrhea on thirty patients. Among these 19 patients had advanced cancer and 11 with acute leukemia. All patients were given IV fluids and Loperamide for 5 days. The patients who did not respond during this period were administered with octreotide subcutaneously for another 5 days and response against diarrhea was noted. We found that only 10% patients responded to loperamide therapy whereas in the remaining 90% patients an excellent response was noted as 96.29% of these patients responded to octreotide therapy which stopped their diarrhea (P<0.005) leading us to the conclusion that, octreotide is a safe and effective drug in the management of chemo and radiotherapy-induced diarrhea. (author)