Thalidomide, the drug that caused thousands of birth defects in Europe and Canada
after pregnant women took it for morning sickness in the 1950s and '60s, has
re-surfaced in recent years as a possible aid in fighting cancer. In June, former
Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro told a Congressional panel that the drug had
been helpful as a treatment for her multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood.
Ferraro took the drug as part of a study reported in the journal, Blood,
conducted by researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
in Little Rock. In the study, as patients took increasing doses of thalidomide,
drug levels of a protein that indicates disease activity dropped by half to
nearly zero.
The drug is thought to combat some cancers by cutting off the blood supply
to cancer cells. Although now known to be off-limits for pregnant women, thalidomide
is approved by the FDA for treatment of leprosy, and is being studied as a possible
treatment for several types of cancer.
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