No abstract available.
Hyperplasia* ; Neointima* ; Thalidomide*

No abstract available.
Hyperplasia* ; Neointima* ; Thalidomide*

A patient with cutaneous sarcoidosis was treated with thalidomide for steroid unresponsive sarcoidal granulomas of the skin. The duration of the therapy was 16 weeks, during which time, the skin lesions showed clinically and histologically improvement. The initial dosage was 50mg a day, which was increased to 100mg a day after 5 weeks. No side effect was noted. The good response of sarcoidal granulomas of the skin to thalidomide observed in this patient demonstrates the usefulness of this drug as a possible long-term monotherapeutic or steroid-sparing agent in the treatment of cutaneous sarcoidosis.
Granuloma ; Humans ; Sarcoidosis* ; Skin ; Thalidomide*

Systemic thalidomide has good effect on refractory chronic discoid lupus erythematosus (CDLE) whereas topical regimen of it has not been reported previously. In this paper, a case of refractory CDLE cured with topical thalidomide in clinic was reported and the feasibility of topical therapy was reviewed.
Female ; Humans ; Lupus Erythematosus, Discoid ; Thalidomide

Dexamethasone ; Humans ; Melphalan ; Multiple Myeloma ; Recurrence ; Thalidomide

Thalidomide is an anti-angiogenic agent widely used in patients with multiple myeloma. The response to therapy is commonly monitored using serum and/or urine M protein, as these are known to reflect the tumor burden. Although extramedullary plasmacytomas are tissues with high neovascularization, it has been suggested in some reports that the response to thalidomide in these patients may be inferior, despite changes in the serum M protein level. Herein, we report the case of a patient who newly developed hepatosplenic extramedullary plasmacytoma, despite reduction in the serum M protein level following thalidomide treatment.
Humans ; Multiple Myeloma* ; Plasmacytoma ; Thalidomide* ; Tumor Burden

Clarithromycin is a 14-membered ring macrolide antibiotics that is widely used in the treatment of infectious disease. Several clinical investigations showed that clarithromycin was highly efficient for multiple myeloma in improving response rate and survival when used in combination with the conventional chemotherapy since 1997. This finding highlights the importance of clarithromycin on the treatment of multiple myeloma. It offers a new regimen for the relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients, and provids a new thought for the treatment of multiple myeloma. However, its related mechanism is still unclear, and more investigations are needed. This review summerizes the recent research progress of clarithromycin for treatment of multiple myeloma and its potential mechanisms.
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Clarithromycin ; Humans ; Multiple Myeloma ; Thalidomide

Immunomodulatory drug lenalidomide is a synthetic compound derived by modifying the chemical structure of thalidomide to improve its potency and reduce its side effects. Lenalidomide is a 4-amino-glutamyl analogue of thalidomide that has emerged as a drug with activity against various hematological and solid malignancies. It is approved by FDA in USA for clinical use in myelodysplastic syndromes with deletion of chromosome 5q and multiple myeloma. Studies have shown that lenalidomide exert anti-tumor activity probably by various mechanisms in hematologic malignancies, such as immunomodulation, anti-angiogenesis and effects on signal transduction. In this article, the progresses of study on these problems are reviewed.
Hematologic Neoplasms ; immunology ; Humans ; Immunologic Factors ; Thalidomide ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of clinicopathological features, laboratory parameters and treatment regimens on the prognosis of patients with multiple myeloma. METHODS: The clinical data of 97 patients with multiple myeloma treated with chemotherapy in Department of Hematology, the 1st Hospital of Hainan Medical College were analyzed retrospectively. The clinicopathological features (age, sex, severe anemia, light chain type, hypoproteinemia, paraplegia, renal injury, amyloidosis, complex karyotype, bone disease classification, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) physical status score, complete remission, etc.), laboratory parameters (C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase, blood calcium, serum β2 microglobulin, etc.), and treatment schemes (thalidomide maintenance treatment) were recorded. The patients were followed up for 1-60 months, and their total survival time were recorded. A single factor and multiple factors were used to analyze the factors affecting the total and early mortality of the patients. The survival curves were plotted by the Kaplan-Meier method and the survival analysis was carried out by Log-rank test. RESULTS: Among 97 patients, 29 cases (29.90%) achieved complete remission, and 56 cases (57.73%) achineved partial remission. The total effective rate was 87.63% (85/97). At the end of the follow-up, 19 cases (19.59%) died, and 1, 3 and 5 year survival rates were 80.41%, 71.13% and 37.11% respectively. The median overall survival time was 29 (1-60) months. The results of single factor analysis showed that age, hypoproteinemia, severe anemia, paraplegia, renal injury, amyloidosis, complex karyotype, complete remission and thalidomide maintenance therapy were the factors affecting the prognosis of the patients (all P＜0.05). Further multiple factor Logistic regression analysis showed that age and hypoproteinemia, severe anemia, paraplegia, amyloidosis, complex karyotype and thalidomide maintenance treatment were factors affecting the prognosis (P＜0.05). Of the 97 patients, 8 cases died early. The results of single factor analysis showed that amyloidosis and severe anemia were risk factors for early death (all P＜0.05), and further multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that amyloidosis was an independent risk factor for early death (P＜0.05). CONCLUSION There are many adverse factors affecting the prognosis of patients with multiple myeloma, such as age, hypoproteinemia, severe anemia, paraplegia, amyloidosis, complex karyotype and so on. The risk of early death in the patients with amyloidosis is higher, and salidomide maintenance therapy can help to prolong the life span of the patient.
Amyloidosis ; Humans ; Multiple Myeloma ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Thalidomide

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of life (QOL) on patients with multiple myeloma(MM) during maintenance therapy and to explore the related factors important for QOL. METHODS: The demography, clinical and laboratorial data of 66 MM patients during maintenance therapy were collected and explored by using a cross-sectional question naire(EORTC QLQ C30 V 3.0). The statistical analysis was performed using Nowegram normal mode(NM) and reference values(RV) of MM patients which were used as control. RESULTS: In comparison with Nowegran normal mode, the scores of general health status, physical function, role function and social function of patients during maintenance therapy were lower than those of normal mode (61.3, 73.9, 65.4 and 65.2 vs 75.3, 89.9, 83.3 and 85.8 respectively), while the scores of constipation and financial difficulty were higher than those of normal mode(16.7 and 44.4 vs 10.7 and 9.7 respectively) (P<0.05). In comparison with reference values, the scores of general health status, emotional and coguitive functions of patients during maintenance therapy were significantly higher than those of reference values(61.3, 81.7 and 84.3 vs 55.7, 71.3 and 78.1 respectively) (P<0.05). In addition, the maintenance therapy yet decreasd the scores of fatigue, nausea and vomiting, pain, dyspnoea, insomnia, appetite loss and constipation of patients, but increased the score of financial difficulty of patients (P<0.05). The age of initial diagnosis, serum LDH level, peripheral neuropathy, high ratio of own expense and underlying diseases were main factors affecting the general health status of patients (P<0.05), while the decrease of Hb level, increase of blood Ca level and accompanied genetic changes negatively influence the QOL (P<0.05), while the high culture level showed positive effect on QOL (P<0.05). The choise of drugs for maintenace (therapy thalidomide and bortezomib) not had significant effect on QOL of patients. CONCLUSION The maintenance therapy can improve the QOL of MM patients, the age at initial diagnses, serum LDH level, peripheral neuropathy and high ratio of own expence are the main factors affecting the QOL of MM patients.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Multiple Myeloma ; therapy ; Quality of Life ; Thalidomide