WASHINGTON -- Cancer patients are about to get new help in preventing vomiting that can be debilitating during chemotherapy.

The Food and Drug Administration cleared sale of aprepitant, brand name Emend, the first drug approved to prevent delayed nausea.

In 2002, the American Cancer Society found that more than 1,284,900 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in the United States. Emend can reduce nausea associated with chemotherapy treatments used to treat cancers such as lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and some female cancers.

In some patients, nausea is so bad they choose to go without chemo.

Emend is part of a three-drug therapy that works with other drugs to treat nausea and vomiting. Other drugs prevent the nausea that can follow immediately after treatment, and Emend prevents the retching that comes a day or so after treatment.

The new drug blocks receptors for a chemical that sends nausea impulses in the brain.

"This new drug is important in the management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. It should improve cancer patients' quality of life, as well as their ability to tolerate these treatments," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan.

He said Emend plus standard stomach-settling therapy let 20 percent more patients go through a chemo session with no nausea.

The drug is manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc. of Whitehouse Station, N.J.