Abstract
This chapter has two distinct parts. The first will deal with the clinical aspects of the use of corticosteroids in neuro-oncology. The second will review what is known of the biological basis of the remarkable effects of this class of drugs upon peritumoral brain edema. Unfortunately, despite decades of work, we still know all too little. Most of what we do clinically with corticosteroids is empirical. The absence of a full understanding of their mechanism of action has blocked the search for drugs with similar benefit but that lack their troublesome side effects. Nonetheless, this deficiency in our understanding of how steroids work does not detract from the tremendous impact that this class of drugs has had upon the care of patients with brain tumors since they were introduced for control of tumor-induced edema nearly 40 years ago.
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Paleologos, N.A., Vick, N.A. (2003). Corticosteroids in Neuro-Oncology. In: Schiff, D., Wen, P.Y. (eds) Cancer Neurology in Clinical Practice. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-317-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-317-0_3
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
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