Dexamethasone for Palliation - Brain Metastases

NCT00188864 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE2 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 50

Last updated 2019-11-27

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Brain metastases occur when cancer cells from the initial tumour site (for example, lung or breast) spread to the brain. This develops in approximately 10% - 30% of adults with cancer. They can produce different complaints related to their effect on brain functioning, decrease in a person's ability to carry on with their usual activities, a reduction in the quality of life and shortened life expectancy.

The standard treatment particularly for people with more than one brain metastasis consists of palliative radiation therapy to the brain and steroids. Steroids (such as Decadron or Dexamethasone) are medication used to reduce swelling around the tumour, and thus symptoms improve. Steroids could be very helpful but have a number of potential side effects, particularly if used for longer periods of time. There is no standard dose of Decadron used in treating brain metastases patients. The most commonly dose used is 4 mg four times/day.

This study will assess if lower doses of Decadron - 8 mg every morning for symptomatic patients and 4 mg every morning for asymptomatic patients - are effective in maintaining symptom control in patients with brain metastases, without neurological deterioration that necessitates the patient to go back or to a higher dose at any time. This information will help also in understanding how to decrease the side effects associated with higher doses of steroids in people with your condition.

Conditions

  • Neoplasm Metastasis

Interventions

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Princess Margaret Hospital, Canada

    collaborator OTHER
  • University Health Network, Toronto

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Andrea Bezjak, MD · Princess Margaret Hospital, Canada

Study Design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2003-11-30
Primary Completion
2006-11-30
Completion
2019-01-28

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00188864 on ClinicalTrials.gov