I just heard an ad on the radio for a prescription pill (don’t recall the name) to treat men with advanced prostate cancer. One of the warnings was that it may cause harm to an unborn child. How could that work?
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Thalidomide can cause birth defects when taken by men for cancer treatment because it can be transmitted in semen.
The warning can also be there for off-label use. Lots of medications are used that way.
Thalidomide was originally intended to be a sedative (which it apparently didn’t do) but was found to be an effective anti-nausea drug and doctors gave it to pregnant women with severe morning sickness. It had never been tested on pregnant women. That caused a rash of severe physical deformities in babies born to those mothers and it was taken off the market in the early 60s. FWIW, the FDA never approved the drug as it never passed trials. It was approved in other countries though.
Came back into use as a treatment for leprosy, and the FDA approved it for that use, and then it was found to be effective for treating cancer.
Quite a journey for that one.
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