Prostate carcinoma patients can get relief with combo

A combination of docetaxel and estramustine, the cancer drugs, can prove to be an effective option for offering relief to patients afflicted with prostate carcinoma (cancer) and not making expected responds to hormone therapy and whose cancer has spread to other body parts.

Derek Raghavan, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, and co-author of the study, said that patients administered with docetaxel and prednisone had a better outcome throughout the survival curve.

From News-medical.net:

The study found that patients who received a combination of docetaxel and estramustine experienced an improvement in their survival rate vs. those treated with mitoxantrone, another cancer drug, and prednisone, a type of steroid.
“This work will be important in shaping future drug strategies in treating patients with advanced, hormone-resistant prostate cancer, as no prior study has shown an improvement in their median or overall survival,” said Derek Raghavan, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, and co-author of the study. Dr. Raghavan is one of the leaders of the Genitourinary Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group, the team that conducted the study. The physicians at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center are members of this cooperative cancer research group.

This finding was disclosed by a study published in an issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Asthma victims can benefit from steroids

According to a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and other institutions, asthmatics can benefit to a significant extent when doses of steroids are increased or more drugs are added to the steroid treatment.

Robert C. Strunk, M.D., and Leonard B. Bacharier, M.D., both Washington University pediatric asthma specialists at St. Louis Children's Hospital were co-authors for this study.

From Sciencedaily.com:

"We used a few complicated and expensive tests we thought would help us determine which drug would be better, but they didn't help, so we can avoid these tests," says Strunk, the Donald Strominger Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine.
Although 98 percent of patients in the study showed improvement on at least one of the step-up options, there were still 120 asthma exacerbations, or attacks, among the 165 patients that required treatment with prednisone, a corticosteroid commonly used after an exacerbation that prevents the release of inflammatory substances in the body. Bacharier says that indicates none of these treatments provide perfect asthma control.
"There may not be an ideal therapy for every patient, but these step-up treatments allow for improved asthma control and outcomes over leaving them on low-dose steroids alone," Bacharier says.

This study was published online March 2, 2010, by the New England Journal of Medicine and presented the same day at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology's annual meeting in New Orleans.

Multiple myeloma patients can live for long with steroid pills

Multiple myeloma, which is a cancer of the plasma cells in the region of bone marrow, can be effectively treated with steroid pills and help patients live for long.

It was remarked by James Berenson, M.D., lead author of the Southwest Oncology Group sponsored study and Director of the Multiple Myeloma and Bone Metastasis Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center that use of Prednisone in response to an upfront chemotherapy can be hailed as a safe and effective treatment option for prolonging lives.

From News.Bio-Medicine.Org:

Multiple myeloma occurs when the body makes an abnormally high number of cancerous plasma cells. When healthy, plasma cells help to protect the body from infection and disease by forming antibodies that attack foreign substances. But when the body makes too many plasma cells that all make the same type of antibody, this leads to multiple myeloma, causing damage to bones, severe bone pain, an overabundance of calcium in the blood, anemia, and a weakening of the immune system. Today, most patients with multiple myeloma receive initial treatment with chemotherapy or with high-dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant and many respond to treatment and achieve remission. However, all patients ultimately relapse with incurable disease, leading physicians to search for ways to prolong remission for as long as possible by using some type of maintenance therapy.

This finding was disclosed by researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

GCA patients can expect extended relief

Patients suffering from giant cell arteritis (GCA) can expect to finally have some relief coming their way with a study offering hope and a practical treatment option for them.

Researchers from Emory University and the Mayo Clinic said that recently diagnosed GCA patients can considerably taper off use of an oral steroid and these patients also relapsed less in the following year with just three days of a high-dose intravenous steroid.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Faced with these ineffective new agents and with the limitations and drawbacks of the current treatment, Dr. Goronzy and Dr. Weyand turned to animal models. After implanting inflamed arteries into mice, they observed the effect of different doses of steroids on the inflammation. "We learned that the doses of steroids, although already high, really didn’t take away the disease," says Dr. Weyand. "But if we increased the dose to very high levels, we could then eradicate the inflammation."

Equipped with those initial results, they designed a double-blind human study to examine whether a brief period of pulsing with high-dose intravenous steroids soon after diagnosis could reduce the long-term need for prednisone and improve patient recovery.

As the article and an accompanying editorial report, the research showed extremely positive long-term results. Those patients who had been given the initial high dosage had fewer relapses of the disease (21, as compared to 37 relapses). Seventy-one percent were also able to reduce their daily dose of prednisone to 5 milligrams after a year of treatment (compared to only 15 percent in the control group), avoiding the need for long-term steroids.

This study was published in an issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Dana Foundation, the Mayo Foundation and the National Institutes of Health General Clinical Research Center.

Steroid therapies can be avoided after transplant

The use of modern immunosuppressive drugs can help in maintaining kidney function along with eliminating the need for steroid therapy as early as one week following a transplant surgery.

It was remarked by Steve Woodle, MD, chief of UC’s transplant surgery division, principal investigator and designer of the study that eliminating a daily dose of steroids after a transplant minimizes chronic health conditions that are common to kidney transplant recipients.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Steroids have long been the primary source of morbidity and complications following successful kidney transplantation,” Woodle says. “This study demonstrates that elimination of even small, daily prednisone (pred-ne-zone) doses does not compromise results while minimizing weight gain, diabetes and bone complications.”
Corticosteroids were the first anti-rejection drug used in transplant patients, dating back to the first transplant surgeries over 50 years ago.
Traditionally patients who have undergone organ transplantation have required life-long steroid treatments given in combination with other drugs that help suppress the body’s immune system and allow the transplanted organ to function properly.
However, the steroid treatment—given as the oral drug, prednisone—can cause serious side effects including cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol and blood pressure, weight gain, diabetes, bone weakness and cataracts.

The study also involved researchers from the University of Wisconsin; the University of Utah; the Methodist Hospital, Houston; and Weill Cornell Medical College and was funded by Astellas Pharma U.S., Inc.

Asthma drug combo or increase in steroid doses can bring improvement

Children with asthma and continuing to experience the disease symptoms and making use of use of low-dose inhaled corticosteroids can find benefit by or adding one of two asthma drugs or increasing the dosage.

Results of the study, called BADGER (Best ADd-on therapy Giving Effective Responses) can help physicians in predicting, in a better way, as to which of the options would help a patient the most.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Surprisingly, researchers determined several factors that had no influence on a drug's effectiveness, including age, gender, allergies, bronchodilator response, recent exacerbations or several other tests.

"We used a few complicated and expensive tests we thought would help us determine which drug would be better, but they didn't help, so we can avoid these tests," says Strunk, the Donald Strominger Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine.

Although 98 percent of patients in the study showed improvement on at least one of the step-up options, there were still 120 asthma exacerbations, or attacks, among the 165 patients that required treatment with prednisone, a corticosteroid commonly used after an exacerbation that prevents the release of inflammatory substances in the body. Bacharier says that indicates none of these treatments provide perfect asthma control.

"There may not be an ideal therapy for every patient, but these step-up treatments allow for improved asthma control and outcomes over leaving them on low-dose steroids alone," Bacharier says.

Robert C. Strunk, M.D., and Leonard B. Bacharier, M.D., both Washington University pediatric asthma specialists at St. Louis Children's Hospital, were coauthors on the study, published online March 2, 2010, by the New England Journal of Medicine.

The effects of steroids on blood sugar levels

There are certain types of steroids, which have greater effects on the sugar levels than others. For instance, glucocorticoids can have greater effects compared to anabolic steroids.

Glucocorticoids are types of steroids that have an effect in the regulation of glucose metabolism. It includes hydrocortisone, prednisone, dexamethasone and betamethasone.

This type of steroids can make the liver generate sugar from substances such as proteins and fats. It acts in the brain, specifically in the appetite control center, by increasing hunger pangs. Finally, steroids inhibits the release of insulin from the pancreas and lowers the action of insulin in our body tissues.

Steroids can affect both non-diabetics and diabetics. However, the effect is more significant with diabetics. If you are a diabetic, you may need to visit your doctor for some adjustments in your diabetic therapy, since greater doses of insulin might be needed to counteract the effects of steroid therapy. Your meals should also be properly planned as steroids can increase hunger.

It is important that your doctor would be able to balance the exact dose of steroids to be given. The type of steroids and route of administration should be properly identified.

Generally, inhaled and topical steroids produce the least effect on blood sugar levels compared to other forms of steroids.

From Caller:

CORPUS CHRISTI — The word steroids has become synonymous with sports and medicine. But these two associations could not be more different. The family of anabolic steroids abused by athletes is quite different than the family of glucocorticoid steroids that patients get.