“Disappearing” spinal cord compression: Oncolytic effect of glucocorticoids (and other chemotherapeutic agents) on epidural metastases
✍ Scribed by Dr. Jerome B. Posner; John Howieson; Esteban Cvitkovic
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1977
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 566 KB
- Volume
- 2
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0364-5134
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Four patients suffering spinal cord compression resulting from epidural metastases were treated with adrenocorticosteroid hormones. For 2 patients, prompt relief of symptoms followed glucocorticoid therapy alone and was associated with marked shrinkage or disappearance of the metastasis, a direct oncolytic effect of the steroids. For the other 2 patients, glucocorticoids combined with other chemotherapeutic agents caused disappearance of the extradural tumor. For 1 patient, failure to recognize the oncolytic effects of the chemotherapy led to an unnecessary surgical procedure, and for a second patient an unnecessary operation was narrowly averted. Thus, for certain patients, glucocorticoids may occasionally have a marked oncolytic effect on epidural metastatic tumors.