Why the dex if no change in brain mets?

[kristen]

I have a question for my friend in Canada who had the brain mets and you all were so wonderful in answering them.

She had a scan (brain MRI) not to long ago and her mets are stable and she is on maintenace Herceptin. Gosh, it's been a while since she had WBR. Now she is having numbness and slight limping on one side of her body. The doctors talked to her about neuropathy and I know this could be a side effect of WBR.

My question is if there is no new lesions or growth of brain mets, why would they put her on dexamethasone for neuropathy? Wouldn't drugs like Neurotin (sp) be better for her? She did call them and told them it was getting worse and they moved her scan (whole body) up from the end of June to the end of this week. But they keep reassuring her that it is not cancer.

Has anyone ever heard of onc's giving patients dex for neuropathy?
Does anyone know of anyone who had this side effect from WBR and what did they do for it?
Do you know of others who have had these symptoms and it was caused by something else?
I know this is a lot of guess work, just would like to get some feed back so I am not blind sided if it could be something else. Thank you all again, your my Merck, my support and explainers. Love to you all.

[Esther]

Dex is used to reduce inflmation in the case of brain mets. Her dr must think there is swelling in her brain, and the swelling itself can cause harm, that's why it's treated.