Dexamethasone is a synthetic glucocorticoid that is widely used in clinical due to its multiple pharmacological effects. Recently, dexamethasone is increasingly utilized in anti-cancer therapy. It is frequently used to prevent side effects of chemotherapy such as nausea, vomiting and pain, as well as to increase the anti-tumor activity of the cancer chemotherapeutic agents as a chemosensitizer and to inhibit tumor growth as an anti-cancer agent in some certain cancers. Dexamethasone produces the effects in anti-inflammation, anti-angiogenesis, control of estrogen activity and so on, by binding to glucocorticoid receptor to regulate gene expression of some important bio-signal molecules. Those signal pathways could interfere with the transcription of various factors which can regulate proliferation, invasion and metastasis of tumors.
Antiemetics ; Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Dexamethasone ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Nausea ; Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Signal Transduction ; Vomiting

Abiraterone Acetate/therapeutic use* ; Androstenes/therapeutic use* ; Dexamethasone/therapeutic use* ; Humans ; Male ; Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant/pathology*

Dexamethasone ; therapeutic use ; Glucocorticoids ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Meconium Aspiration Syndrome ; drug therapy ; physiopathology ; Methylprednisolone ; therapeutic use ; Prednisolone ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVETo explore the feature of primary light chain amyloidosis patients treated with high-dose melphalan with auto peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (auto-PBSCT) and bortezomib plus dexamethasone (VD).

METHODSThirty-eight patients diagnosed from September 2004 to September 2012 were analyzed retrospectively, including 15 cases received auto-PBSCT, 23 cases exposed with VD.

RESULTSThe median follow-up duration for the patients was 34 months (range, 1-112 months), including auto-PBSCT group of 38 months (range, 5-112 months) and VD group of 31 months (range, 1-108 months). The organ response rate in all the patients was 39.5% (15/38), and the organ response rate between these two groups has no significant difference [33.3% (5/15) vs 43.5% (10/23), P=0.532]. However, the median time of organ response was significant difference [6 (3-10) months vs 3 (1-6) months, respectively (P=0.032)]. The 3-year overall survival (OS) rates in the two groups were 72.0% and 66.9%, and their average survival were 84.7 months and 75.9 months, respectively (P=0.683). In the patients with auto-PBSCT, the occurrence of III-IV grade of bone marrow suppression (P<0.001), fever (P<0.001), nausea and infection (P=0.006) were obviously higher than those with VD, but there was no statistically significant difference in pulmonary infection (P=0.069) and bloodstream infection (P=0.059).

CONCLUSIONSThe preliminary results have presented that primary light chain amyloidosis patients treated with auto-PBSCT or VD had similar organ response rate and survival. However, more adverse events occurred in the group of auto-PBSCT.

Amyloidosis ; therapy ; Bortezomib ; therapeutic use ; Dexamethasone ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis ; Melphalan ; therapeutic use ; Myeloablative Agonists ; therapeutic use ; Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Retrospective Studies

Antibodies, Monoclonal ; therapeutic use ; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; Dexamethasone ; therapeutic use ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Glucocorticoids ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; therapeutic use ; Lichen Planus, Oral ; diagnosis ; pathology ; therapy ; Phototherapy ; Prednisone ; therapeutic use ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVETo investigate the efficacy and safety of Rituximab combined with second line regimen for treatment of relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma.

METHODSSeven patients with relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma were treated with Rituximab combined with second line regimen. Among them, two patients were treated with R-GDP (E) [rituximab, gemcitabine, cisplatin, dexamethasone (etoposide)] regimen, another two patients with R-IGVP (rituximab, ifosfamide, gemcitabine, vinorelbine, prednisone)regimen, and the left three patients with R-BEACOPP (rituximab, bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone)regimen. The efficacy and safety were evaluated during and after chemotherapy.

RESULTSThere're three male and four female patients, whose median age was 21 years (range 12-36 years) old. One patient was diagnosed as nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL), and the other six patients as classical HL (four nodular sclerosis HL, one lymphocyte-rich classical HL and one hmixed cellularity HL). The median cycles of salvage therapy were 4(1-4), and the median follow-up was 29 months (24-58 months). Among these 7 patients, the complete remission was observed in 4 patients, stable disease in 2 patients, but one patient died during salvage therapy. The two-year survival rates were 85.7% and the major toxic effects were bone marrow suppression.

CONCLUSIONThese results indicate that the Rituximab combined with second line regimen is an effective therapy for relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Bleomycin ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Cisplatin ; therapeutic use ; Cyclophosphamide ; therapeutic use ; Deoxycytidine ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Dexamethasone ; therapeutic use ; Doxorubicin ; therapeutic use ; Etoposide ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Hodgkin Disease ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Prednisone ; therapeutic use ; Procarbazine ; therapeutic use ; Remission Induction ; Rituximab ; therapeutic use ; Salvage Therapy ; Vinblastine ; analogs & derivatives ; Vincristine ; therapeutic use ; Young Adult

Animals ; Dexamethasone ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Ginsenosides ; therapeutic use ; Hepatic Artery ; pathology ; Ischemia ; therapy ; Liver Diseases ; therapy ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Child ; Child, Preschool ; Dexamethasone ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Lymphohistiocytosis, Hemophagocytic ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; genetics ; Male ; Prednisolone ; therapeutic use ; Prognosis

Humans ; Multiple Myeloma/drug therapy* ; Thalidomide/therapeutic use* ; Dexamethasone/therapeutic use* ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local/drug therapy*

This study was purpose to explore the therapeutic efficacy and safety of VD regimen and VAD regimen for patients with multiple myeloma. The clinical data of 59 patients with multiple myeloma in our hospital from June 2008 to June 2011 were analyzed retrospectively. The 59 patients with multiple myeloma were divided randomly into VD and VAD groups. The patients in VD group were treated with bortezomib combined dexamethasone. The patients in VAD group were treated with vincristine, doxorubicin and dexamethasone. The efficacy, median survival time, 1-and 2-year survival rate, and toxicity were estimated for the patients in VD group and VAD group. The results showed that the efficacy in the VD group and VAD group was 83.78% and 59.09% respectively. The efficacy in the VD group was significantly higher than that in the VAD group (P < 0.05). The median survival time and 1-and 2-year survival rate in VD group were significantly higher than that in VAD group (P < 0.05). The side effects in VD group mainly were haematologic toxicity, gastrointestinal disorder and peripheral neuropathy. The adverse events were mild and tolerable. The main side effects in the VAD group were haematologic toxicity, infection and hair loss. Most of the infectious in VAD group were at Grade III-IV. It is concluded that VD regimen is an effective and safe therapy regimen for multiple myeloma, and it seems significantly superior to VAD regimen and its side effect can be tolerable for the patients.
Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Boronic Acids ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Bortezomib ; Dexamethasone ; therapeutic use ; Doxorubicin ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multiple Myeloma ; drug therapy ; Pyrazines ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Vincristine ; therapeutic use