Although some individuals with the inherited blood disorder sickle cell disease benefit from treatment with hydroxyurea, which increases fetal hemoglobin expression, it does not work for all sickle-cell patients. Now, hope for a new therapy has been provided by the observation that the anticancer drugs lenalidomide and pomalidomide were more effective than hydroxyurea at inducing HbF expression by red blood cells derived in vitro from CD34+ cells from both healthy and sickle-cell individuals.