In order to help to ease the cancer drug shortages in the United States, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved the production of cancer medications Doxil and preservative-free methotrexate at new plants. This will significantly ease the burden currently placed on doctors and cancer patients.

Doxil is an important factor in the treatment of ovarian and other cancers, and has been unavailable for new patients in months. Preservative-free methotrexate is used for a type of childhood leukemia and for high-dose treatment of bone cancer. Since 2008, methortrexate has been unable to be obtained with any certainty, and with a sudden closure of a manufacturer, doctors and patients were worried that the supply wouldn’t last through this month. The methotrexate that was available on the market contained preservatives, which had been seen to cause paralysis in children and other patients receiving high doses. Luckily, Canada has not been affected by the shortage, and cancer patients can buy Rheumatrex and Doxil online.

Although there have been shortages of many other medications, the sharpest decline has been in injectable medications, which are commonly used in hospitals, but do not create large profits for pharmaceutical companies. These drugs are one of the strongest weapons against cancer recurrence though, and a sudden inability to provide their patients with these necessary medications worried many doctors. At least 15 deaths since 2010 have been attributed to the cancer drug shortage. A sudden lack of medicine often significantly reduces a patient’s chance of surviving cancer.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 at 12:24 am and is filed under Cancer Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.