Currently no U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved therapy can reestablish lymphatic circulation after a patient develops lymphedema. Up to 10 million people in the United States and more than 100 million around the world have lymphedema.
A phase II clinical trial at Stanford University School of Medicine tested whether the drug ubenimex, a leukemia treatment used in Japan, can spur the growth of new lymphatic vessels for patients with secondary leg lymphedema. It was the “first pharmaceutical company-sponsored trial for a medical treatment of lymphedema.”
Continue reading “Replumbing the lymphatic system with a pill: still a dream”