Paclitaxel pre-medication: A comparison of two steroid pre-medication protocols.

PurposeTo evaluate and compare the rate of hypersensitivity reactions between two low-dose steroid pre-medication regimens for paclitaxel-based treatments.MethodsThis was a single-center, retrospective, descriptive study, comparing the incidence of hypersensitivity reactions in two different dexamethasone pre-medication regimens that took place between July 2013 to December 2014. Patients who were paclitaxel-naive with a diagnosis of breast or gynecological cancers were included. Patients in the early termination protocol were pre-medicated with a standard pre-medication regimen and if tolerated with no hypersensitivity reaction occurrence, all pre-medications were discontinued after the first two infusions. Patients in the low-dose steroid continuation protocol were pre-medicated with lower doses of dexamethasone, and if the infusion was tolerated with no hypersensitivity reaction, dexamethasone doses were further reduced after the first two infusions.ResultsA total of 120 patients were included for data...