Comparing Olanzapine and Mirtazapine in the Improvement of Unintentional Weight Loss for Patients with Advanced Stage Cancer

To determine whether olanzapine or mirtazapine is more effective in preventing weight loss and appetite loss in cancer patients.

Olanzapine and Mirtazapine have been used in the past few years to attempt to prevent weight and appetite loss in cancer patients. Both have mixed study results and none of the previous studies are of high enough quality to make clinical recommendations. With limited options available, palliative and oncology providers turn to these medications with little evidence. There are no formal studies comparing the two to determine if one is superior to the other, so choices are often made based purely on provider preference. We aim to conduct a study to determine if one of the drugs outperforms the other to guide our standard practice at Englewood Health. This study is being conducted to determine whether olanzapine or mirtazapine is more effective in preventing weight loss and appetite loss in cancer patients.