Terminate the TumorColin's Brain Cancer Blog

Don’t make his tumor angry. You wouldn’t like him when its angry…

So it’s a steroid.

It is a member of the glucocorticoid class of hormones.

This means they are steroids but, unlike the anabolic steroids (like the ones Jason Giambi uses) these are “catabolic” steroids.

Instead of building the body up, glucocorticoids and catabolics are designed to break down stored resources (fats, sugars and proteins) so that they may be used as fuels in times of stress.

We do not use glucocorticoids for their influences on glucose and protein metabolism; we use them because they are also the most broadly anti-inflammatory medications that we have.

Their uses fit into several groups:

Anti-inflammatory (especially for joint pain and itchy skin)

Immune-suppression (treatment of conditions where the immune system is destructively hyperactive. Higher doses are required to actually suppress the immune system)

Cancer Chemotherapy (especially in the treatment of lymphoma)

Central Nervous System Disorders (usually after trauma or after a disc episode to relieve swelling in the brain or spinal cord)

Shock (steroids seem to help improve circulation)

Blood Calcium Reduction (in medical conditions where blood calcium is dangerously high treatment is needed to reduce levels to normal)

Why is Colin Taking Them?

He took them for 10 days after his biopsy to combat the swelling from irritating tumor and surrounding brain tissue.

Stop taking them for 2 weeks.

Started taking them again right before starting radiation. Why?

Radiation irritates the tumor, which causes it to swell. Then it pushes out on surrounding tissue.

Technically, the brain tissue around the tumor where the radiation passes through is also irritated, so it swells also.

The steroids, counteract the swelling, so his head doesn’t explode (would also relieve pressure, but in a negative way.)

You can read about the side effects in a future post, or do you own research here:

Wikipedia: Dexamethasone
RX List: Dexamethasone
Mar Vista Animal Medical Center: Dexamethasone
Medline Plus: Dexamethasone
Wikipedia: Cushings

Tags: steroids

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 1:06 am and is filed under Other Drugs. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.