Dexamethasone

[Finlay66]

After 10 cycles of Docetaxel I'm having a break from treatment for a few weeks before deciding on the next treatment. My PSA is still rising

In the meantime I've been prescribed Dexamethasone. 500 micrograms.

I've read some previous posts on this. Is the view on balance this can be helpful in keeping things stable?

Thanks

[GP24]

This is a very high dose. Ask if you can reduce that.

[Finlay66 in reply to GP24]

That's the equivalent of .5 milligrams per day. Is that still high?

[GP24 in reply to Finlay66]

No, 0.5 mg this is the lowest dose. 500 µg is rarely used for dosing Dexamethasone pills. The dose of 0.5 mg is usually used to taper off the medication.

[TeleGuy in reply to GP24]

0.5mg = 500 µg

That's the standard dose to replace 5mg of prednisone when switching steroids used with abiraterone. And if you've been on it for a while you'll need to whittle down your dose slowly.

[Tall_Allen]

A corticosteroid is always given with chemo. You should not stop taking it abruptly - taper down slowly.