United Press International

　　Wednesday, June 22, 2005

　　BOLOGNA, Italy, Jun 21, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) —— Italian researchers have found that thalidomide, a drug notorious in the 1960s for birth defects, shows promise as treatment for bone marrow cancer.

　　The team compared the response of patients with multiple myeloma treated with ThalDex, a compound including thalidomide, and those given conventional chemotherapy before undergoing autologous bone marrow transplant. They found that 76 percent of the patients given ThalDex had at least a partial remission, while only 52 percent of the other patients did.

　　ThalDex also reduced the size of tumors more and was more comfortable for patients than intravenous chemotherapy.

　　"It's time to look at thalidomide in a new light," said Dr. Michele Cavo, M.D., a professor at the University of Bologna and lead study author. "It's earned its place in modern medicine."

　　The study is to be published in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology.