The MDS Beacon™

Chinese researchers have found in a pilot study that cyclosporine and thalidomide combination treatment led to improved blood counts and was well-tolerated in myelodysplastic syndromes patients.

“This is the first report that cyclosporine combined with thalidomide could improve the response in low or intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndromes patients who are not candidates for intensive approaches,” wrote Dr. Zhijian Xiao, one of the study researchers, in an email to The MDS Beacon.

Cyclosporine (Sandimmune) is a drug that suppresses the immune system. It is widely used after patients receive organs from a…

The combination therapy of Vidaza (azacitidine) and thalidomide (Thalomid) did not lead to any unexpected side effects in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients according to a study performed by Australian researchers.

The findings were presented as a poster at the American Society of Hematology meeting and exposition in December 2009.

The Australian study followed results published in 2008 which showed that treating MDS and AML patients with Vidaza and thalidomide was as effective as treating high-risk patients with Vidaza alone (see related Beacon news). 

The Australian researchers stated that since…

A combination treatment of Vidaza (azacitidine) and thalidomide (Thalomid) is considered to be safe and at least as effective as Vidaza alone in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients, according to recent research published in the journal Cancer.

Vidaza has been one of the main therapies for MDS since it was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2004.  In August 2009, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommended Vidaza as the preferred drug for “treating MDS patients with progressing or relatively high-risk disease,” which includes patients most likely to progress…

Researchers from the Instituto Di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico in Italy presented a systematic review of 10 thalidomide treatment studies at the 14th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA). They found that thalidomide (Thalomid) doses provide effective and tolerable therapy for certain myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients, particularly patients with recent diagnoses and low International Prognostic Score System (IPSS) scores.

The researchers reviewed 10 Phase 1-2 studies of thalidomide treatment, examining the efficacy of the drug in the treatment of 527 MDS patients. The majority of studies recorded…