THE notorious drug thalidomide can stop or delay an aggressive form of blood
cancer called multiple myeloma in its early stages, doctors in the US
report.
Thalidomide was originally sold as a morning sickness cure but turned out to
cause severe birth defects. It is only the third drug—and the first in
three decades—that works against multiple myeloma.
Vincent Rajkumar of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota has found that 14 out of 16
patients recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma improved after taking
thalidomide. In six, levels of myeloma protein—a marker for the
disease—fell by half or more.…
