I have been taking 150mg Thalidomide in combination with 12mg of dexamethasone every other day. Unfortunately I have experienced severe side effects, including extremely high sugar levels and other awful side effects. My doctor has lowered the Thalidomide to 100mg. I am currently taking the Thalidomide and am off the dex but she is considering giving me Prednisone instead of the dex to lessen the extreme side effects. I tried looking online but have not been able to find any research on Thalidomide and Prednisone drug combination. Has anyone heard of this drug combination? Is this an effective treatment? Is it comparable to Thalidomide/Dex?
Thank you!
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Re: Thalidomide-Prednisone effective therapy??
Hi Sunshine15,
My impression is that oncologists these days prefer to combine dexamethasone (rather than prednisone) with either thalidomide, Revlimid, or Velcade. However, I also think that prednisone is considered a reasonable alternative if dexamethasone is creating problems in terms of side effects, as appears to be the case with you. I suspect it's the dex, for example, that's driving a lot of the issues you're having with your sugar levels.
I found this article published a while ago here at the Beacon about thalidomide and prednisone in combination.
https://myelomabeacon.org/news/2009/04/14/thalomid-plus-prednisolone-shown-to-improve-survival-after-asct/
If you want to see if there are more articles mentioning thalidomide and prednisone in combination, you may want to sift through the (many) articles at the Beacon's thalidomide tag page:
https://myelomabeacon.org/tag/thalidomide/
Finally, here is a link to a search at Pubmed on the keywords "thalidomide" and "prednisone".
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=thalidomide%20prednisone
Once again, you'll have to wade through a number of articles to find useful information, but I suspect there's some helpful information there if you work your way through it.
Good luck!
R
My impression is that oncologists these days prefer to combine dexamethasone (rather than prednisone) with either thalidomide, Revlimid, or Velcade. However, I also think that prednisone is considered a reasonable alternative if dexamethasone is creating problems in terms of side effects, as appears to be the case with you. I suspect it's the dex, for example, that's driving a lot of the issues you're having with your sugar levels.
I found this article published a while ago here at the Beacon about thalidomide and prednisone in combination.
https://myelomabeacon.org/news/2009/04/14/thalomid-plus-prednisolone-shown-to-improve-survival-after-asct/
If you want to see if there are more articles mentioning thalidomide and prednisone in combination, you may want to sift through the (many) articles at the Beacon's thalidomide tag page:
https://myelomabeacon.org/tag/thalidomide/
Finally, here is a link to a search at Pubmed on the keywords "thalidomide" and "prednisone".
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=thalidomide%20prednisone
Once again, you'll have to wade through a number of articles to find useful information, but I suspect there's some helpful information there if you work your way through it.
Good luck!
R
Re: Thalidomide-Prednisone effective therapy??
Hello,
Thalidomide/Prednisone would be roughly equivalent to Thalidomide/Dexamethasone. Many patients find that Prednisone is more tolerable than Dexamethasone. From my perspective whether or not you are a diabetic using insulin or oral mediciations makes a big difference. Temporary rises in blood sugar are not highly dangerous in a non-diabetic. The issue to focus on is the myeloma, elevated blood sugars are not necessarily critical. It is more concerning if one is treating a diabetic patient on insulin and their blood sugars are running over 500 than a non diabetic with mildly elevated sugars (e.g. in the 200-300s). Decreasing the dexamethasone (or equivalent steroid) to 40mg once weekly might make it more tolerable. Any regimen with Thalidomide is likely to be hard to tolerate. The drug has many unpleasant side effects. But, it can be effective in myeloma.
Thalidomide/Prednisone would be roughly equivalent to Thalidomide/Dexamethasone. Many patients find that Prednisone is more tolerable than Dexamethasone. From my perspective whether or not you are a diabetic using insulin or oral mediciations makes a big difference. Temporary rises in blood sugar are not highly dangerous in a non-diabetic. The issue to focus on is the myeloma, elevated blood sugars are not necessarily critical. It is more concerning if one is treating a diabetic patient on insulin and their blood sugars are running over 500 than a non diabetic with mildly elevated sugars (e.g. in the 200-300s). Decreasing the dexamethasone (or equivalent steroid) to 40mg once weekly might make it more tolerable. Any regimen with Thalidomide is likely to be hard to tolerate. The drug has many unpleasant side effects. But, it can be effective in myeloma.
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Dr. Edward Libby - Name: Edward Libby, M.D.
Beacon Medical Advisor
Re: Thalidomide-Prednisone effective therapy??
Thank you so much Ricardo and Dr. Libby! Thalidomide is definitely taking a toll on my body but we've tried everything thus far. From Revmilid, Velcade to rounds of VDT-PACE. We were supposed to have the transplant in March 2011 but it has been put on hold until we can get the myeloma under control. Thalidomide worked wonders in 2007 so we're hoping for similar results this time and hopefully a transplant 
Staying positive and appreciate your advice and comments.
Best wishes!!
Sunshine
Staying positive and appreciate your advice and comments.Best wishes!!
Sunshine
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sunshine15 - When were you/they diagnosed?: 2007
- Age at diagnosis: 49
4 posts
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