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Therapeutic renaissance of thalidomide in the treatment of haematological malignancies

Abstract

Very few drugs had a history similar to that of thalidomide (α-N-[phthalimido] gluramide). First introduced in the late 1950s in Germany, in 1961 thalidomide was withdrawn due to its teratogenic effects. More than three decades after, it is attracting growing interest because of its reported immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. The discovery that thalidomide inhibits angiogenesis led to preclinical and clinical trials as an anticancer agent in the treatment of solid tumours and haematological malignancies, as summarized in this review article. More recently, structural analogues of thalidomide have been synthesized in order to explore potential molecular targets of thalidomide, as well as to identify new agents with improved therapeutic efficacy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro AIRC, Milan, Ministry for Health – Regione Puglia (Grant BS2), Rome, Fondazione Italiana per la Lotta al Neuroblastoma, Genoa, The members of the CARSO Consortium (University of Bari, Lega Italiana per La Lotta Contro i Tumori and Regione Puglia), Ministero della Salute (Ricerca Finalizzata FSN 2002), Rome, Italy.

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Ribatti, D., Vacca, A. Therapeutic renaissance of thalidomide in the treatment of haematological malignancies. Leukemia 19, 1525–1531 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403852

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