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Cancer Doctors Fear Chemo Shortage - Are they out of their minds?
Fear mongering runs wild as the headline reads Chemo in short supply.
Date: 12/17/2008 4:20:26 PM ( 16 y ) ... viewed 1624 times This story from Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/healthcare/2008/12/16/cancer-pharmacuticals-leucovorin-...
Cancer Doctors Fear Chemo Drug Shortage
Matthew Herper, 12.16.08, 02:45 PM EST
The inability of two drug makers to produce a generic cancer medicine endangers both patients and research.
Doctors and patient advocates say a shortage of a key drug for colorectal cancer could deprive thousands of patients of appropriate treatment and stall the testing of new experimental drugs.
Leucovorin, a modified B vitamin, has been a key ingredient in chemotherapy regimens for 30 years, ever since studies found it tripled the number of patients whose tumors shrank when given another drug, called 5-flurouracil. A drug cocktail of 5FU and leucovorin is now a backbone of colon cancer chemotherapy. Newer drugs like Erbitux and Avastin have never been tested without it.
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I have yet to see a single Chemotherapy let alone chemo as a class that is more than 3-5% effective. Now we are supposed to be up in arms about a shortage - I say that God by force of nature has slowed the supply so people have long enough to evaluate the mountain of data and select an effective alternative.
I know this is a short rant but really how low can these fear pushers go?
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