Common steroid could improve prostate-cancer radiotherapy outcomes.

[Scout4answers]

technologynetworks.com/canc...

[cesces]

Looks like it's already approved.

Low risk high reward.

[lokibear0803 in reply to cesces]

I believe this is saying that Betamethasone is approved for certain indications, in particular “inflammation and cancer of the hematopoietic system” (so, cancers of the blood…?). But not yet approved for protection while radiating for prostate cancer. It just happened to have all the properties they were looking for that would (theoretically) protect healthy cells from radiation effects.

So, really, it’s a hypothesis so far, and we’ll need RCTs for FDA approval. Do you agree I’m interpreting correctly?

[cesces in reply to lokibear0803]

Once approved it can be used off label at the discretion of your doc

[tango65]

Very interesting.

[Medline]

The active form of Vitamin D or Calcitriol, which is actually a steroid hormone, also increases the sensitivity of prostate cancer cells to radiation through a mechanism similar to Betamethasone.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/176...

[maley2711]

As far as I can tell, no PCa RT has been done using this.....just hypothesis at this point?

[lokibear0803]

Agree with maley2711 . Regardless it’s a hypothesis that suggests a game changer, if I’m thinking about it correctly. Do we think this /could/ mean that we can not only treat with initial radiation more safely, but also safely RE-radiate in general?