Thalidomide test for cancer cases

WASHINGTON - Thalidomide, the morning sickness drug that caused thousands of birth defects before it was banned worldwide in …

WASHINGTON - Thalidomide, the morning sickness drug that caused thousands of birth defects before it was banned worldwide in 1962, is being tested on cancer patients in small clinical trials, the US government and a drug company said yesterday.

Researchers began tests earlier this year on a form of the compound, trade by Bristol Myers Squibb of Princeton, New Jersey, for patients with prostate cancer and Kaposi's sarcoma, cancerous skin lesions afflicting many AIDS patients.