ThalidomideIn 1992, thalidomide was reported by Johns Hopkins medical researchers to improve the survival rate of patients who get bone-marrow transplants. The drug effectively fought graft-versus-host disease, the most common and dangerous complication. Such transplants are standard treatments for potentially fatal disorders including aplastic anemia and some blood cancers. Thalidomide was previously known for years as among the most effective treatments for leprosy. Yet, thalidomide had caused horrendous birth defects in thousands of babies in the 1950s and 60s. The same properties of the drug that arrested the development of babies are capable of arresting progression of many terrible diseases, and even reversing the effects of others.«[Image: present day thalidomide pills.] [Ref.: New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 326, No.16, pp 1055-58.] |
