Category: Health and Wellness
Medication used to treat the most common form of childhood leukemia is in short supply, adding to the largest nationwide shortage of critical lifesaving
hospital medications in nearly a decade.
All five pharmaceutical companies that make the injection drug
methotrexate,
which treats acute lymphoblastic leukemia by slowing the growth of cancer cells, have either slowed and stopped manufacturing of the drug, according to
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The companies have cited high demand or manufacturing delays as reasons for the shortage.
If the shortage continues, physicians and pharmacists fear thousands of children will be left without lifesaving treatment.
"This, to us in oncology, is a national crisis," said Brooke Bernhardt, clinical pharmacy specialist in the department of hematology and oncology at Texas
Children's Hospital in Houston.
According to Dr. Michael Link, pediatric oncologist and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, some hospital pharmacies have reported having
only a couple weeks of supply left.
Many oncologists are especially worried about the shortage of the preservative-free form of methotrexate, which is considered less toxic.
Only the preservative-free methotrexate can be injected into the spinal fluid of cancer patients to prevent the spread and recurrence of the disease.
"There are couple other drugs that can be injected into the spinal fluid, but none that are as effective," said Link. "As for the high dose version of the
drug, there's no workaround for it."