Prospective observational study for the impact of short-term periodic intravenous steroid premedication for gastrointestinal cancer chemotherapy on bone metabolism.

523 Background: Although intravenous glucocorticoid (GC) premedication (GCP) before chemotherapy (CTx) are frequently used to prevent nausea and vomiting for continuing comfortable CTx, the side effects of intermittent GCs on bone health have not yet been reported. So we designed a multicenter, prospective, observational study to evaluate the impact of periodic GCP on bone metabolism in gastrointestinal cancer (GIC) patients (pts). Methods: The eligibility criteria were as the follows: (i) histologically proven GIC. ; (ii) The duration of periodical GCP is weekly, biweekly, and triweekly. More over 4 weeks GC free intervals is not permissible. ; (iii) age over 20. The primary endpoint was to investigate the variations of bone mineral densities (BMD) at lumbar spine measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and bone turnover biomarkers, cross-linked N-telopeptide of type I collagen (NTX) and bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP), between baseline (BL) and 16 weeks after starting CTx (16w). Results: Fro...