ANTI-EMETIC POTENTIAL OF PROCHLORPERAZINE TRANSDERMAL PATCH IN MANAGEMENT OF CHEMOTHERAPY INDUCED NAUSEA AND VOMITING

Uncontrolled nausea and vomiting remain one of the greatest fears of patients undergoing therapy for cancer. In patients getting chemotherapy, serious nausea and vomiting may require dose reduction, treatment delay, or even permanent stoppage. Conventional therapy provides temporary relief from symptoms, but it has lots of undesirable side effects. Prochlorperazine is still widely used as an anti-emetic. Oral and parenteral delivery of prochlorperazine is useful in the management of nausea and vomiting, but due to short half-life, frequent dosing is required, which is inconvenient for the patient. The transdermal drug delivery system is a novel approach and substitute for oral drug delivery and parenteral delivery. It is an easy, painless, and convenient way of applying. In this work, an attempt was made to formulate and evaluate prochlorperazine containing transdermal patches by utilizing casting and solvent evaporation method. The main objective of formulating the Transdermal system was to prolong the drug release time, reduce the frequency of administration and to improve patient compliance. Formulated transdermal patches were evaluated for in-vitro parameters such as folding endurance, drug content, thickness, tensile strength, in-vitro Dissolution, and diffusion studies, which indicated the good efficacy of the prepared formulation. Furthermore, an in-vivo study was performed on chicks using a copper sulfate-induced emesis model. The results showed good therapeutic efficacy of prepared formulation, which confirmed the utility of prochlorperazine transdermal patches as a novel approach in the management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.