[pf] Fw. Thalidomide successful against early-stage multiple myeloma.

· [starts:
  "Thalidomide, a drug notorious for causing horrific birth defects four
decades ago, can stop or slow the progression of a fierce form of blood
cancer in newly diagnosed patients.
   The drug proved so successful in treating patients with early-stage
multiple myeloma that the researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minnesota, published their findings with the study still ongoing.
   They said 14 of 16 patients in the study improved with the drug, while
the other two worsened. The cancer burden of eleven of the patients was
reduced by at least 25 percent, with six of the patients going into
remission."    D.]

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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010726/sc/health_cancer_thalidomide_dc_1.h
tml [all on the same line]
  is:

Thursday July 26 1:04 AM ET 
Controversial Drug Shows Promise in Blood Cancer
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thalidomide, a drug notorious for causing horrific
birth defects four decades ago, can stop or slow the progression of a
fierce form of blood cancer in newly diagnosed patients, researchers at the
Mayo Clinic said on Thursday.

The drug proved so successful in treating patients with early-stage
multiple myeloma that the researchers at the prestigious institution in
Rochester, Minnesota, published their findings with the study still ongoing.

The researchers said 14 of 16 patients in the study improved with the drug,
while the other two worsened. The cancer burden of eleven of the patients
was reduced by at least 25 percent, with six of the patients going into
remission.

The study is the first to be published documenting the effectiveness of
thalidomide as a first-line treatment for multiple myeloma. Researchers at
Mayo Clinic and elsewhere two years ago showed the usefulness of the drug
in patients with advanced myeloma who had failed the standard treatments of
chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant.

Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar, a Mayo Clinic hematologist and lead researcher in
the study, said he has some trepidation about the drug. It was taken off
the market worldwide in 1962 after being used by women to treat morning
sickness and nausea during pregnancy. Thalidomide caused thousands of
babies to be born with severe deformities, including partially formed,
flipper-like limbs and malformed internal organs.

``We are very concerned about this drug because of its history. And we take
extreme precautions to make sure something like that doesn't happen,''
Rajkumar said in an interview. ``The good thing is that myeloma is a
disease that affects mainly (older people), a median age of 65. There are
very few patients with childbearing potential who have myeloma. So the
number of patients for whom we have to be concerned about is small.''

The study appears in the journal Leukemia.

AN INCURABLE DISEASE

Multiple myeloma is an incurable disease marked by the overgrowth and
malfunction of plasma cells in the bone marrow.

It is among the most deadly and difficult to treat forms of cancer. Every
year, about 14,000 Americans are diagnosed with it and about 12,000 die.
The average life expectancy for a patient with it is three to four years.
Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro has the
disease.

Rajkumar said the researchers, when they began the study in 1999, had
planned on conducting it for a year to learn how a few early-stage myeloma
patients responded to thalidomide.

But the positive results, as well as the patients' desire to stay on the
drug, prompted the researchers to continue the study and publish early
findings. He said several of the patients are now in their third year of
receiving thalidomide.

``I think it brings hope. If we can even get one or two years extra to a
three- or four-year life span, that's still a major advantage,'' Rajkumar
said.

But he said he does not yet recommend that early-stage patients get treated
with thalidomide. He called for a larger-scale trial to gauge the drug
against other treatments.

``This is not a cure, but it's certainly encouraging. We need to evaluate
it better,'' added Dr. James Berenson, chief of the oncology division at
the UCLA School of Medicine's Wadsworth Cancer Center and a member of the
scientific advisory board of the International Myeloma Foundation.

``Let's be careful,'' Berenson said. ``The caution is not in terms of my
concern that it's going to cause limb defects or birth defects. My only
concern is that we be -- with open eyes -- aware of the fact that the drug
can have toxicity. So we shouldn't just willy, nilly give it to ever
myeloma patient.''

SIDE EFFECTS REPORTED

Rajkumar noted that the drug produced some side effects, including
constipation, fatigue, skin rashes and mild numbness or tingling in the
hands and feet. In most cases the symptoms were mild and disappeared when
the dose was reduced, he said.

One of the patients in the study, 54-year-old Mary Meylor, of Mineral
Point, Wisconsin, told Reuters that she has gone into remission. She has
used the drug since last November.

``I've been improving instead of getting worse. To me there's a lot of hope
with it. And they're doing more research all the time. So maybe down the
road, they'll find a cure for it while the thalidomide is still working for
me,'' Meylor said in a telephone interview arranged by the Mayo Clinic.

But it has made a comeback of sorts in recent years and also shows promise
in treating severe mouth sores or extreme weight loss and weakness in AIDS
(news - web sites) patients and a painful skin problem caused by leprosy,
also called Hansen's disease.

Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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sent-on to Pos Fut by David.
David MacClement [davd @ ihug.co.nz] (remove spaces)
http://davd.tripod.com/GrRR-010720_titles.html#top
http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/index.html#top
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