Thalidomide in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome with fibrosis

Tsirigotis, Panagiotis; Venetis, Evangelos; Rontogianni, Dimitra; Dervenoulas, John; Kontopidou, Flora; Apostolidis, Panos

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Volume 26, Issue 10 , Pages 965-966, October 2002

Thalidomide in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome with fibrosis

Panagiotis Tsirigotis
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, First Hospital of Athens, Social Insurance Foundation, Zaimi street-Melissia, 15127 Athens, Greece
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +30-1-8042320; fax: +30-1-8041837
Evangelos Venetis
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, First Hospital of Athens, Social Insurance Foundation, Zaimi street-Melissia, 15127 Athens, Greece
Dimitra Rontogianni
- Histopathology Department, Evangelismos Hospital, 15127 Athens, Greece
John Dervenoulas
- Second Department of Internal Medicine, Evangelismos Hospital, 15127 Athens, Greece
Flora Kontopidou
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, First Hospital of Athens, Social Insurance Foundation, Zaimi street-Melissia, 15127 Athens, Greece
Panos Apostolidis
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, First Hospital of Athens, Social Insurance Foundation, Zaimi street-Melissia, 15127 Athens, Greece

Received 7 November 2001; accepted 5 February 2002.

Abstract

A 67-year-old woman was admitted for investigation of pancytopenia. Bone marrow biopsy was compatible with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with fibrosis. For the next 20 months the patient received transfusions of packed red cells, while a 3-month-trial of erythropoetin was unsuccesful. She was then treated with thalidomide 400mg per day. During the next months, a gradual rise in Hb value was noticed and the patient eventually became transfusion independent. Repeat bone marrow biopsy revealed a significant decrease on the degree of fibrosis. Thalidomide has shown excellent results in the treatment of multiple myeloma probably due to its anti-angiogenic activity. It is possible that in our patient thalidomide acted as an anti-fibrotic agent. It will be very interesting to test this novel activity of thalidomide in a large number of patients.