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Purpose: This paper reports prescribing patterns for prophylaxis of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) after highly or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC or MEC) for cancer in six Asia Pacific countries. Methods: In a prospective noninterventional study, 31 sites in Australia, China, India, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan recorded details of CINV prophylaxis for the acute phase (first 24 h) and delayed phase (days 2-5) after single-day HEC or MEC for adult patients. Additional information on CINV prophylactic medications was collected from 6-day patient diaries. Primary antiemetic therapies were defined as corticosteroids, the 5-hydroxytryptamine-3 receptor antagonists (5HT3-RAs), and neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists (NK1-RAs). Results: Evaluable patients in cycle 1 numbered 648 (318 [49 %] HEC and 330 [51 %] MEC) of mean (SD) age of 56 (12) years, including 58 % women. For the acute phase after HEC, overall (and country range), 96 % (91-100 %) of patients received a 5HT3-RA, 87 % (70-100 %) a corticosteroid, and 43 % (0-91 %) an NK1-RA. CINV prophylaxis for the HEC delayed phase was more variable: including 22 % (7-65 %) 5HT3-RA, 52 % (12-93 %) corticosteroid, and 46 % (0-88 %) NK1-RA. For the MEC acute phase, 97 % (87-100 %) of patients received 5HT3-RA and 86 % (73-97 %) a corticosteroid. For the MEC delayed phase, 201 patients (61 %) received a primary antiemetic, including 5HT3-RA (41 %), corticosteroid (37 %), and/or NK1-RA (4 %). Conclusions: The 5HT3-RAs were prescribed consistently in all countries, while prescribing of other antiemetic therapies was variable, and corticosteroids were under-prescribed for CINV prophylaxis, particularly in the delayed phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae is currently used as an efficient biological control agent against different insects. The prevalence and genetic variability of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae var. anisopliae in Asian countries (China, Laos, Singapore and South Korea) and a European country (The Netherlands) was examined. The fungus was found to be widespread in agricultural and forest soils throughout China especially in the south and south western regions, with a maximum recovery percentage of 81.6, while in Laos it was found to be abundant in the forest soils only, the soil of Netherlands also seemed to be an excellent source of entomopathogens with a significant recovery of insect pathogenic fungi. Simple sequence repeats (SSR) and ITS-rDNA sequence data showed that the isolates are closely linked to each other. The gene diversity (He) and polymorphic information content values of sixty two isolates showed mean values of 0.37 and 0.63. The majority of the isolates belonged to one of the closely related genotypes and these were found to be dominant in the agricultural as well as forest ecosystem. Genetic distances among the isolates according to locations and different sources showed minimal variation ranging from 0.23 to 0.34%, with maximum genetic distance of 0.34% among the isolates from Laos and The Netherlands. The reason for the limited variation is uncertain, however even the similarity index among the isolates can endow with sufficient knowledge for the implications of the methods to develop this fungus as a microbial control agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]