Alternative medicine (1)
- Alternative cancer treatments: 11 alternative treatments worth a try
Coping and support (8)
- Cancer survivors: Care for your body after treatment
- Cancer survivors: Reconnecting with loved ones after treatment
- Cancer survivors: Managing late effects of cancer treatment
- see all in Coping and support
Risk factors (1)
- Secondhand smoke: Avoid dangers in the air you breathe
Tests and diagnosis (8)
- Cancer survival rate: What it means for your prognosis
- Biopsy: Types of biopsy procedures used to diagnose cancer
- Cancer blood tests: Lab tests used in cancer diagnosis
- see all in Tests and diagnosis
Treatments and drugs (21)
- Low blood cell counts: Side effect of cancer treatment
- Cancer treatment for women: Possible sexual side effects
- Cancer treatment myths: Any truth to these common beliefs?
- see all in Treatments and drugs
Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Thalidomide: Research advances in cancer and other conditions
Despite its dubious history, thalidomide has proved effective in treating some diseases. Weigh the benefits and risks of the drug to help you decide whether thalidomide is right for you.
By Mayo Clinic staffFor many, the word "thalidomide" conjures up images of babies born with shortened or missing arms and legs. Between 1957 and the early 1960s, thalidomide was used by several thousand pregnant women across the world to ease their morning sickness. But many who took thalidomide in the early stages of pregnancy gave birth to babies with severe birth defects.
Now, decades later, thalidomide isn't used for morning sickness. But it has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat one skin condition and a type of cancer, and it's being investigated as a treatment for many other disorders.
Thalidomide's return isn't without controversy, though. Children born to mothers who took thalidomide fear that allowing people to take the drug could mean more babies will be born with severe disabilities.
Thalidomide proves useful for skin lesions and multiple myeloma
In the mid-1960s, scientists determined that thalidomide was an effective treatment for erythema nodosum leprosum, skin lesions caused by leprosy. The FDA approved thalidomide (Thalomid) for this use in 1998.
Since then, thalidomide has also demonstrated usefulness in treatment of multiple myeloma — a blood and bone marrow cancer. In May 2006, the FDA approved thalidomide, in conjunction with dexamethasone, for the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Thalidomide appears to slow the growth of myeloma cells and prevent them from attaching to bone marrow cells.
Areas of thalidomide research
Researchers continue to investigate thalidomide for use in treating a variety of diseases and conditions. Though more study is needed to evaluate the risks and benefits of the drug, thalidomide has shown promise in treating:
- Inflammatory diseases. Thalidomide reduces the production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) — a cell protein that can cause inflammation. People with inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and Crohn's disease have high levels of TNF-alpha in their bodies.
- HIV-related mouth and throat ulcers. Although this use hasn't been approved by the FDA, doctors can prescribe thalidomide for these HIV-related ulcers (off-label use). Research shows thalidomide might also help treat Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer of the blood vessel walls mostly found in people with HIV, as well as help treat weight loss and body wasting associated with HIV.
- Cancer. Thalidomide may interfere with the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis), which tumors use to get nourishment to help them grow and spread. If thalidomide prevents the formation of blood vessels to tumors, it could stop the growth and spread of some cancers. Preliminary clinical studies have found that thalidomide, when combined with other drugs, may show some promise in treating several types of cancers, including kidney (renal cell) cancer, brain tumors, melanoma and myelofibrosis.
(1 of 2)
- Rosenbach M, et al. Dermatologic therapeutics: thalidomide. A practical guide. Dermatologic Therapy. 2007;20:175.
- Thalomid (prescribing information). Summit, N.J.: Celgene Corp.; 2007. http://www.thalomid.com/pdf/Thalomid_Pl.pdf. Accessed Oct. 30, 2008.
- Patient information sheet thalidomide (marketed as Thalomid). U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/InfoSheets/patient/thalidomidePIS.htm. Accessed Oct. 30, 2008.
- Woodcock J. Supervisory review of NDA 20-785. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. http://www.fda.gov/cder/news/thalinfo/20785medr.htm. Accessed Oct. 30, 2008.
- Label and approval history. Drugs@FDA. http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index.cfm?fuseaction=Search.Label_ApprovalHistory#apphist. Accessed Oct. 30, 2008.
- Melchert M, et al. The thalidomide saga. The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology. 2007;39:1489.
- Revlimid (prescribing information). Summit, N.J.: Celgene Corp.; 2006. http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/label/2006/021880s001.pdf. Accessed Oct. 31, 2008.
