Steroids & WM

You may be prescribed steroids as part of your treatment for Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia. Steroids are produced naturally by your body. They help control the way your body works, regulating amongst other things, your immune system, the way your body uses fats, proteins and carbohydrates, the balance of salts and water in your body, and inflammation.

Steroids can also be man-made and taken as drugs.
Some are taken as tablets, whereas others are given
to you by injection or intravenously.

You may be prescribed steroids to help with your Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia treatment to:

Make chemotherapy more effective and kill cancer cells
To help with any side effects caused by chemotherapy (such as sickness)

Types of steroids used to treat WM include:

Dexamethasone (used in the common WM treatment regimen DRC)
Hydrocortisone
Methylprednisolone
Prednisolone