A Picture of Periwinkle

Periwinkle plant – the source of Vincristine, a chemotherapy 

Dear Readers,

Your author has been busy writing other things, and revamping this site. Medical Lessons is, if nothing else, a work in progress.

For this week, I thought I’d simply share this image of periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus. From this plant comes an old chemotherapy drug,  called Vincristine (Oncovin). When I practiced, I used this agent to treat people with lymphoma, some forms of leukemia, Kaposi’s sarcoma and, rarely, patients with life-threatening cases of low platelets from an immune condition called ITP.

All for now,

ES

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