My mum has stage 3 ovarian cancer and is hopefully starting chemotherapy next week. She has to take 10 steroid tablets 6 hours before she starts. Is this normal procedure? They said it was mandatory. I can't find any credible studies that say this is neccessary and I don't fully understand why it HAS to be done. They said my mother will probably be hyper and then have a low. This is all the more worrying because she has Bipolar disorder (well managed on olanzapine).

Also, steroids increase the risk of infection. They can even hide or change the signs and symptoms of some infections. They might also make it harder for your body to deal with an infection. This means infections are more difficult to diagnose at an early stage.

It makes no sense to me as to why she has to take steroids.