Safe dose reduction of steroid pre-medication for docetaxel in head and neck neoplasm treatment

AbstractConclusion: The results suggest that the rate of severe hypersensitivity reactions did not increase when the dexamethasone pre-medication dose was reduced to 11 mg prior to docetaxel infusion.Objectives: Dexamethasone is commonly used to prevent the adverse effects of docetaxel in head and neck neoplasm treatment. The recommended dexamethasone dose is 8 mg orally twice daily for 3 days for each injection of docetaxel. This pre-medication reduces the incidence of adverse effects to 1–2% of treated patients. However, many adverse events have been observed with long-term steroid use. In an attempt to balance the benefits and harms of steroid prophylaxis without affecting the safety of docetaxel, this study tried to reduce the duration and dose of dexamethasone. Methods: In this study, a total of 336 patients underwent docetaxel-containing protocols (TP or TPF regimens) to treat head and neck neoplasms. Docetaxel was given in doses of 70 mg/m2 once every 3 weeks. Dexamethasone (0.75 mg/tablet) pre-med...