A growing shortage of common cancer drugs is forcing doctors to switch drugs and delaying some treatments, according to a prominent US cancer center.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network said Wednesday that nearly all centers surveyed at the end of last month They were addressing shortages of carboplatin and cisplatin, which are used to treat various cancers. Some patients have become unable to treat patients receiving carboplatin at their intended dose or schedule.
Dr. Kari Wissinski has had to switch to other treatments or change the order of administering drug combinations for some patients. She finished it, she said, “hopefully within three months the supply of carboplatin will increase.”
“As a doctor, it’s really hard to have conversations with families and patients about not having the medicines they want to prescribe,” she says.
Wisinski is a breast cancer specialist and network member at UW Health Carbon Cancer Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Doctors, nurses and pharmacists at her center have done a good job managing the supply of medicines, she said, but it is robbing them of other components of care.
Of the 27 cancer centers that responded to the network’s survey, 25 reported carboplatin shortages. More than a third of carboplatin-deficient cancer centers said they were unable to treat all patients according to planned doses and schedules.
Nineteen hospitals also reported cisplatin shortages, but all said they were able to maintain treatment for existing patients.
Mike Ganio, who studies drug shortages at the American Association of Health System Pharmacists, said the problem began to emerge earlier this year.
“I think it went from a short supply really quickly to a serious short supply,” he said. “There’s not much room for things to get worse.”
Ganio’s association reported shortages of cisplatin in January and carboplatin in late March, months after Indian factories that make both drugs suspended production following inspections that sparked quality concerns. bottom.
Manufacturing problems, unexpected spikes in demand and tight raw material supplies all contribute to rising prescription drug shortages. in the United States. Many people with ADHD have had trouble filling prescriptions for Adderall this year, and drugstores ran out of children’s medicines during last winter’s cold and flu season. .
By the first quarter of this year, there are currently 301 drug shortages in the country, according to the University of Utah Drug Information Service.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has taken several steps to alleviate the shortage of chemotherapeutic agents. The agency allows the temporary importation of some foreign-approved versions of cisplatin from FDA-registered plants.
That should help, but a big factor is getting the Indian factories back to full production, Ganio said.
He also pointed out that shortages in drug supplies have been a problem for decades.
“We need to find the root cause of these shortages, or they will continue,” he said.
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