New in vivo results support concerns about harmful effects of cortisone drugs in the treatment of breast cancer.

摘要

Cortisone drugs are steroid hormones in the glucocorticoid family. These medicaments are used in cancer treatment and cause programmed cell death, or apoptosis, in transformed cells of the hematopoietic system.1 In addition, the drugs lessen side effects such as nausea and vomiting and protect against edema formation as well as allergies to specific chemo-therapeutic agents. At the same time, glucocorticoids can decrease edema in normal body tissues affected by die tumor.2'3 These facts have provided a rationale for die use of steroid hormones to lessen the side effects of chemotherapy for non-hematologic malignancies. Concerning metastatic breast cancer, taxanes such as paditaxel, are among the most active chemotherapy agents used. Initially, taxane use was limited by hypersensitivity reactions, but once these were better managed, largely by premedication with glucocorticoids (GCs), taxane chemotherapy has became part of standard management in most Western countries.