Thalidomide News and Research

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Thalidomide is a drug that is used to treat multiple myeloma in patients who have just been diagnosed, and a painful skin disease related to leprosy. It is also being studied in the treatment of other types of cancer. Thalidomide belongs to the family of drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors. Also called Thalomid.

Velcade, lenalidomide and dexamethasone combo show promise for multiple myeloma

A new combination of bortezomib (Velcade) and two other drugs is showing a very high response rate in patients newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a team headed by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

13 Dec 2007

Lenalidomide - dexamethasone combination effective against multiple myeloma

Pairing a new thalidomide derivative with a steroid slows progress of multiple myeloma, an incurable bone marrow cancer, and prolongs the lives of patients who have relapsed from previous treatment, researchers report in the Nov. 22 New England Journal of Medicine.

21 Nov 2007

Studies attribute recent increase in multiple myeloma survival to novel therapies

Multiple myeloma is one of the most common and devastating bone marrow cancers in the U.S., but survival rates have risen dramatically over the past decade.

2 Nov 2007

Thalidomide therapy helps elderly myeloma patients live longer

The drug thalidomide is making a comeback as a cancer fighting therapy and has been successfully used along with standard therapy to treat the blood cancer myeloma.

7 Oct 2007

New pregnancy labeling rules should be approved without delay

Marks the tenth anniversary of a public hearing that was hoped to spark substantial changes in the way drugs are labeled for use during pregnancy.

2 Aug 2007

50 million Europeans suffer from neurological diseases

About 50 million people in the EU suffer from neurological diseases such as epilepsy, migraines, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, strokes and dementia.

18 Jun 2007

Multiple myeloma dexamethasone / lenalidomide trial closes

The Southwest Oncology Group, the largest of several National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trials networks, has permanently closed enrollment in a trial comparing a standard drug therapy, dexamethasone, with a combined therapy of the same drug plus the drug lenalidomide (Revlimid) for people newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

16 May 2007

Method for making new molecules based on flavonoids - implications for cancer therapeutics

You've heard of them -- the good-for-your-health compounds found in plants that we enjoy in red wine, dark chocolate, green tea and citrus fruits.

5 Apr 2007

Roswell Park research aids development of myeloma drug

Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) researchers played a leading role in clinical studies which led to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a new treatment for patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma - the second most common blood cancer.

11 Jul 2006

Thalomid gets FDA approval to treat multiple myeloma

Thalomid (thalidomide) has been given a new lease of life following the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the drug to be used in combination with the steroid dexamethasone for the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

29 May 2006

Natural killer cells and antibody-based immune function

A new drug may boost the effectiveness of a widely used treatment for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), while simultaneously overcoming drug resistance in those patients.

4 Apr 2006

First trial to combine a biologic agent with a conventional chemotherapy agent for the treatment of ovarian cancer

Researchers found the addition of thalidomide to topotecan for the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer significantly increases the response to therapy and the duration of progression free survival without additional toxicity.

28 Mar 2006

Therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma remains inadequate

The recent FDA approvals of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors sorafenib and sunitinib based on their activity in metastatic renal cell carcinoma have excited the medical oncology community

9 Mar 2006

Thalidomide, Lenalidomide show promise against Lou Gehrig's disease

New animal research suggests that two well-studied drugs, thalidomide and its derivative, lenalidomide, might extend the survival of patients with the neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

9 Mar 2006

Thalidomide improves remission in myeloma

Myeloma is one of the least curable cancers and involves plasma cells, the white blood cells that produce antibodies.

9 Mar 2006

Is there any role for thalidomide as a monotherapy in the management of metastatic renal cell carcinoma?

Thalidomide remains an enigma in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Initial clinical trials suggested a benefit, but more recently, subsequent randomized trials studying thalidomide in combination with other agents such as interferon have demonstrated no added benefit.

8 Mar 2006

Thalomid gives hope for blood cancer sufferers

Drug company Celgene says it has halted a pivotal-stage trial of its Thalomid drug earlier than expected after the drug was shown to dramatically limit the progress of the blood cancer multiple myeloma.

9 Jan 2006

HOXA1 is a gene that's been looking for a disorder for a long time

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston, who specialize in studying the genetics of rare eye-movement disorders, have found a rare genetic syndrome whose implications go far beyond the eye, raising intriguing questions about human cardiovascular and brain development.

12 Sep 2005

Rev/Dex combo looks like a breakthrough treatment for multiple myeloma

Mayo Clinic Cancer Center investigators report that combination therapy with lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone (combination is called Rev/Dex) looks like a breakthrough treatment for multiple myeloma. Results of a Phase II clinical trial were published online Aug. 23 in Blood.

1 Sep 2005

Activist groups hinder important clinical trials of HIV medication

One promising approach to help stem the global HIV epidemic is to give commercial sex workers an HIV medication (such as the drug tenofovir) before they have high risk sex in the hope of reducing their chances of becoming infected, an approach called "pre-exposure prophylaxis" (PREP).

19 Jul 2005