A research study conducted by Harvard Medical School scientists revealed that patients with breast, pancreatic and other types of cancer may live longer if they take anti-nausea medication during surgery. The results of the study were presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of Anesthesiology.
According to a report by the site time now news Researchers found that three months after cancer surgery, more than three times as many patients died who did not receive dexamethasone, a corticosteroid used in a wide range of conditions for its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects, compared to those who received the drug. Patients are given dexamethasone to prevent nausea Vomiting after surgery and during chemotherapy.
The researchers found that dexamethasone could improve mid- to long-term outcomes in patients with non-immune cancers (those that do not elicit a strong immune response) such as sarcomas and cancers of the breast, uterus, ovary, esophagus, pancreas, thyroid, and bone and joints.
“Previous research has reported that in cancers where the immune system controls cancer growth, the positive and negative effects of dexamethasone balance each other out, so there is no benefit and our study is the first study,” said Maximilian Schaefer, senior study author and director of the Center for Excellence in Anesthesia Research at Harvard Medical School. Large illustrates this for a variety of cancers, as the immune system does not play a major role and the positive effects appear to prevail,” Schaefer added.
The researchers analyzed the records of 74,058 patients who underwent surgery to remove non-immunoblastic carcinoid tumors between 2005 and 2020 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
In all, 25178 patients (34%) received dexamethasone during surgery after 90 days, 209 (0.83%) patients who received dexamethasone died compared to 1543 (3.2%) patients who did not receive the drug after taking various factors into account, including that Dexamethasone is often given to younger patients. Those who received the drug still had a 21% risk of death within one year after surgery. A second analysis determined that dexamethasone was particularly beneficial for patients with ovarian, uterine, or cervical cancer.
“Based on our data, anesthesiologists should feel more confident in administering dexamethasone to patients undergoing surgery for non-immunogenic cancers,” said Dr. Schaefer, adding that the drug “not only helps treat nausea, but may also improve survival.” “.
