Behavioural and hypothalamic molecular effects of the anti-cancer agent cisplatin in the rat : A model of chemotherapy-related malaise?

Abstract Many cancer patients receiving chemotherapy experience fatigue, disturbed circadian rhythms, anorexia and a variety of dyspeptic symptoms including nausea. There is no animal model for this ‘chemotherapy-related malaise’ so we investigated the behavioural and molecular effects of a potent chemotherapeutic agent, cisplatin (CP, 6 mg/kg, i.p.) in rats. Dark-phase horizontal locomotor activity declined post-CP reaching a nadir on day 3 ( P P  > 0.001) at 2 days, coincident with an increase in gastric contents (cisplatin 9.04 ± 0.8 vs. saline 2.32 ± 0.3 g; P P