The antineoplastic effect of methylprednisolone pulse therapy in two patients with glucocorticoid receptor-positive glioblastoma multiforme.

Glucocorticoids in high concentrations inhibit in vitro the growth rate of glioblastoma multiforme. This presupposes the presence of glucocorticoid receptors in the cytoplasma. Glucocorticoid receptor positive patients with histological glioblastoma multiforme were postoperatively treated with high dose methylprednisolone pulse therapy during which CT-scanning initially demonstrated tumor regression. One patient's tumor size was unchanged after 24 weeks, whereas in the other patient, the tumor size after decreasing for 1 month began increasing again. The survival rate, at the present 15 and 10 months, without irradiation therapy and the decreasing glucocorticoid receptor concentrations at reoperations indicate an antineoplastic effect by continuous high-dose glucocorticoid pulse therapy.