Thalidomide the Good Devil that Treats Cancer

LONDON (Reuters) - Elderly patients with an aggressive form of blood cancer lived about 20 months longer when given the drug Thalidomide as part of their treatment, French researchers said on Friday.


Thalidomide was developed by German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal. It was sold from 1957 to 1961 in almost 50 countries. It has the following properties:

# Thalidomide has sedative, hypnotic, and anti-emetic properties.

# Thalidomide is a potent teratogenic in humans, non-human primates, rabbits, and rats.

# With Thalidomide, the era of legislation of testing drugs for safety
during pregnancy before it can receive approval for sale had started
by the U.S. Congress in 1062. This act was in reaction to the tragedy of approximately 10,000 children that were born with severe malformities,
including phocomelia, because their mothers had taken Thalidomide during pregnancy. Other countries enacted similar legislations.

# Thalidomide relieves pain associated with Leprosy.

# Thalidomide is approved by the FDA for use in multiple myeloma.

# There are studies underway to determine Thalidomide's effects on several types of cancers like lung, blood, and brain cancers.

# Very recently (October/05), adding Thalidomide to the standard drugs
used in elderly patients with an aggressive form of blood cancer, was found to increase their survival time by nearly 52 months compared to 33 months for those on standard therapy. Progression-free(the time it takes before the disease worsens) also improved by about a0 months.


Thus, we can see that Thalidomide which changes badly the external forms of humans before birth, also better changes their internal forms
in their late years. Thalidomide is a good devil.