Thalidomide is currently used in the treatment of multiple myeloma at initial diagnosis and for relapsed-refractory disease. Patients generally show signs of response within 2–3 months of starting the drug, with response rates of 20–70%. When combined with dexamethasone, the response rates in myeloma are 90% or more in some studies. Many patients have durable responses—up to 12–18 months in refractory disease and even longer in some patients treated at diagnosis. The success of thalidomide in myeloma has led to numerous clinical trials in other diseases such as myelodysplastic syndrome, acute myelogenous leukemia, and GVH disease, as well as in solid tumors like colon cancer, renal cell carcinoma, melanoma, and prostate cancer, with variable results to date. Thalidomide has been used for many years in the treatment of some manifestations of leprosy and has been reintroduced in the USA for erythema nodosum leprosum; it is also useful in management of the skin manifestations of lupus erythematosus.
The adverse effect profile of thalidomide is extensive. The most important toxicity is teratogenesis. Because of this effect, thalidomide prescription and use is closely regulated by the manufacturer. Other adverse effects of thalidomide include peripheral neuropathy, constipation, rash, fatigue, hypothyroidism, and increased risk of deep-vein thrombosis. Thrombosis is sufficiently frequent, particularly in the hematologic malignancy population, that most patients are placed on some type of anticoagulant when thalidomide treatment is initiated.
Owing to thalidomide’s serious toxicity profile, considerable effort has been expended in the development of analogs. Immunomodulatory derivatives of thalidomide are termed IMiDs. Some IMiDs are much more potent than thalidomide in regulating cytokines and affecting T-cell proliferation. Lenalidomide is an oral IMiD that in animal and in vitro studies has been shown to be similar to thalidomide in action, but with less toxicity, especially teratogenicity. Lenalidomide was approved by the FDA when trials showed its effectiveness in the treatment of the myelodysplastic syndrome with the chromosome 5q31 deletion. Clinical trials using lenalidomide to treat multiple myeloma showed similar efficacy, leading to approval for both primary and relapsed/refractory myeloma. Pomalidomide (originally called CC-4047) is a newer oral IMiD that is FDA approved. Like the other IMiDs, it has myriad mechanisms of actions including antiangiogenic activity, inhibition of TNF-α, and stimulation of apoptosis and cytotoxic T-cell activity. Most clinical trials of pomalidomide have targeted patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, for which the FDA approved the drug in 2013. Both lenalidomide and pomalidomide have side effect profiles similar to that of thalidomide.
Azathioprine is a prodrug of mercaptopurine and, like mercaptopurine, functions as an antimetabolite (see Chapter 54). Although its action is presumably mediated by conversion to mercaptopurine and further metabolites, it has been more widely used than mercaptopurine for immunosuppression in humans. These agents represent prototypes of the antimetabolite group of cytotoxic immunosuppressive drugs, and many other agents that kill proliferative cells appear to work at a similar level in the immune response.