Pediatric cancer doctors are sounding the alarm about a growing shortage of chemotherapy drugs for children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dwindling supplies add another layer to the ongoing cancer drug shortage crisis that\u2019s left doctors scrambling and forced patients to make difficult choices about treatments since early February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Biden administration has taken steps to address the crisis, in some cases successfully: Doctors say that shortages of two cancer drugs, carboplatin and cisplatin, have eased significantly in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, reports from children\u2019s hospitals across the country are pointing to supply problems <\/strong>for two other chemotherapy drugs that are commonly used to treat pediatric cancers: vinblastine and dacarbazine. Another chemotherapy drug also often used in children, methotrexate, has been in short supply since March, and is still hard to come by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All three drugs are used for a range of cancers but, in children, vinblastine and dacarbazine are most commonly used to treat Hodgkin lymphoma. Methotrexate is the go-to drug for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common cancer in children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The supply issues mean doctors must substitute the drugs with less effective alternatives or delay treatment until the drugs become available again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s devastating,\u201d said Dr. Doug Hawkins, chair of the Children\u2019s Oncology Group, a national research organization. \u201cCan you imagine that your child has been diagnosed with cancer, and you\u2019re told, \u2018We know how to treat this, so we have a 70% chance, an 80% chance, a 90% chance of curing your child with standard treatment, and Oh, by the way, we can\u2019t get one of those standard treatments.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Biden administration announced<\/a> this month that the supplies of carboplatin and cisplatin have almost returned to pre-shortage levels, though the two drugs are still among the 15 listed as in shortage by the White House.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, a breast and gynecologic medical oncologist, said at her hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey, that the supplies of carboplatin and cisplatin are \u201csignificantly better,\u201d if not fully resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in recent weeks, her colleagues who treat blood cancers have expressed deep concerns about the availability of vinblastine. Blood cancers include leukemia and lymphoma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2018Not fixing the problem at large\u2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n