Lomadin can be used to treat tumors like breast cancer

The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy — starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies.

Lodamin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that Folkman’s team has been working to perfect for 20 years. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, his colleagues say they developed a formulation that works as a pill, without side-effects.

They have licensed it to SynDevRx, Inc, a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company that has recruited several prominent cancer experts to its board.

Tests in mice showed it worked against a range of tumors, including breast cancer, neuroblastoma, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, brain tumors known as glioblastomas and uterine tumors.

Warfarin may cause bleeding and less clot

In May, Karen Schmale was rushed to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, gasping for air. Diagnosed with blood clots in her lungs, she was given a powerful blood thinner called warfarin.

The medicine probably helped save her life. Then it almost killed her. About a week later, Ms. Schmale, 49 years old, noticed blood in her urine and soon became so weak she could barely climb the stairs to her second-floor apartment. The warfarin was causing the bleeding, and she had to go back to the hospital for an emergency blood transfusion.

A genetic test revealed Ms. Schmale was unusually sensitive to the drug and needed a smaller dose. Before the test, “nobody knew I was going to react like that,” says Ms. Schmale, a data-entry coordinator at a university in St. Louis.