For cancer patients in the United States today, a horrifying reality may be in store after a devastating diagnosis. Their malignancies are likely to be undertreated and even left untreated.
The country sells cheap platinum-based generic anti-cancer drugs used to treat a variety of cancers in hundreds of thousands of US patients each year (lung, breast, bladder, ovarian, testicular, endometrial and head patients). There is a serious shortage of drugs. such as cervical cancer.
Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, US doctors are forced to ration cisplatin and carboplatin. That means prioritizing cancer patients who have a chance of being cured over late-stage patients, for whom drugs simply slow the progression and buy time. Still, people with curable cancer may not receive the full dose. Some people only have 80 percent or 60 percent of his standard dose available. And doctors don’t know how these partial doses will affect patient outcomes.
of Opinion article Kristen Rice, a San Diego-based oncologist, told Stat News this week about the dilemma she faces in caring for just one of her patients. The patient had a curable lung cancer that was somewhat too large to be surgically removed. The plan is usually three cycles of platinum-based drugs, and surgery can be done if the cancer shrinks a little. However, “if we were to reduce her dose to prolong drug delivery, we would run the risk of reducing the chances of a response, which could mean missing a potentially curative surgery.” ‘” Rice wrote. “If the scan results after the third cycle weren’t what we expected, the first question she would ask would be, ‘What if I was on full dose? Would that make a difference?’ 』
Meanwhile, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, oncologist Bonnie Moore told KFF Health News that clinicians at her clinic provided some treatment. Uterine cancer patients received carboplatin at 60 percent dose last month, then transitioned to 80 percent dose On June 2, they were glued to the drug distributor’s website, hoping the drug would be back in stock. it didn’t. The dose remained at 80 percent.
Melissa Hardesty, a gynecologic oncologist at Alaska Women’s Cancer Care in Anchorage, Alaska, told Alaska Public Media on Tuesday that so is her clinic. distribution of drugs. “At the moment, today, as of this second, we have no cisplatin in-house,” Hardesty said. “So if a new patient with cervical cancer comes along, I’m basically going to treat them on the extrapolation of other things.” She explained that she used them and hoped they would work against her cancer. This may or may not work. Also, alternative treatments may have more serious side effects.
factory in trouble
The situation is even more desperate as the shortage is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon and even if immediate problems are resolved, long-term fundamental cracks in the generics industry are likely to remain. there is
The current shortage was sparked late last year after the Food and Drug Administration inspected a drug manufacturing facility owned by Intus Pharmaceuticals in Ahmedabad, India. Inspectors found serious violations. Intus then voluntarily closed facilities that supplied about half of its generic cisplatin and carboplatin in the United States.
AMAZING INSPECTION REPORTThe document, released in January, leaves no doubt as to why the factory was closed. In addition to various manufacturing violations, including laboratory and quality control problems, inspectors reported finding a truck full of shredded and torn papers in plastic bags 150 meters from the facility. bottom. A closer inspection of the paperwork by the inspector revealed that it was a quality control paperwork and an analytical weighing slip.
