The effects of dexamethasone on transcapillary transport in experimental brain tumors: II. Canine brain tumors.

We studied the effect of dexamethasone on transcapillary transport in ten Avian Sarcoma Virus (ASV)-induced canine brain tumors, before and one week after administration of dexamethasone, 2.5 mg/kg/day. A computed tomographic (CT) method was used to measure regional values of K1 (blood-to-tissue transfer constant), k2 (tissue-to-blood efflux constant), and Vp (tissue plasma vascular space) of meglumine iothalamate (Conray-60); the values were reconstructed for each 0.8 x 0.8 x 5 mm volume element of the CT data. For all tumors considered together, there was a decrease in the whole tumor K1 value of meglumine iothalamate from 26 +/- 2.2 (SE) before dexamethasone to 24 +/- 2.9 microliters/g/min after dexamethasone. Vp decreased from 7.2 +/- 0.7 to 6.7 +/- 0.9 ml/100 g, and the size of the tumor extracellular space (Ve) decreased from 0.30 to 0.26 ml/g. These changes were not statistically significant. However, when each tumor was used as its own control, K1 significantly decreased after dexamethasone in four tumors, significantly increased in two and was unchanged in four. These results suggest that decreased blood-to-tissue transport may be one mechanism underlying resolution of tumor associated cerebral edema in some brain tumors and that the effects of dexamethasone on blood-to-tissue transport in brain tumors are variable from one tumor to the next. Decreased 'permeability' may not be the sole mechanism by which dexamethasone reduces tumor-associated cerebral edema.