Ferraro using thalidomide against blood cancer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A representative of Geraldine Ferraro on Tuesday said the former New York congresswoman and one-time vice presidential candidate is taking thalidomide to treat her blood cancer.

Peter Ragone said Ferraro is taking the drug to treat multiple myeloma. She was diagnosed with the disease in 1998.

Ferraro is among the first multiple myeloma patients to be treated with the controversial drug. Thalidomide was prescribed to pregnant women in the 1950s and early 1960s to treat morning sickness, but it was pulled from the market in 1962, after more than 10,000 babies were born with severe birth defects attributed to the drug.

The drug made a comeback in the 1990s when doctors discovered it was a useful treatment against AIDS, leprosy and some types of cancer, including multiple myeloma. Researchers aren't sure how the drug works against cancer, but they theorize that it blocks the blood supply to tumors, preventing them from growing.

Multiple myeloma is particularly deadly form of cancer. More than 14,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the United States, according to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and more than 11,000 people die from it each year. About 50 percent of patients die within five years of diagnosis.

Traditional treatments for multiple myeloma include chemotherapy, radiation and bone marrow transplantation. Thalidomide is the first drug to be used against multiple myeloma when a patient has relapsed.

Ferraro said the thalidomide has put her cancer into remission and allowed her to avoid chemotherapy so far.

Ferraro, who ran for vice president on the Democratic ticket with Walter Mondale in 1984, plans to testify about her illness at a Senate hearing on Thursday.