A Picture of Periwinkle
![Catharanthus_roseus (Wiki Commons)](http://www.medicallessons.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Catharanthus_roseus-Wiki-Commons-300x225.jpg)
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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