TETRACOSACTIDE TREATMENT OF PERITUMORAL EDEMA OF THE BRAIN

Tetracosactide is known to be used in brain tumours, but its action is difficult to evaluate clearly. Tetracosactide exerts analgesic, anti- emetic and anti-inflammatory effects and it reduces the oedema surroun ding brain tumours. It is this latter effect which we have studied. We used a technetium-labelled cerebral marker, 99mTc HMPAO (Ceretec), an d found that this functional exploration not only detects the presence of a brain tumour, but also measures regional cerebral blood flow. Th is marker is mainly used in intracerebral vascular diseases. Since feb ruary 1990, eighteen patients suffering from malignant brain tumour wi th pronounced perilesional oedema were selected and treated with tetra cosactide for two days. With the help of 99mTc HMPAO scintigraphy the oedema was quantified, and the results obtained were interpreted. The initial results of this clinical experiment indicate that the phenomen a observed were due to improved vascularization of the healthy peritum oral areas with resorption of oedema. This was a consequence of the di rect tetracosactide action, and the higher the dose of this compound, the clearer its action.