Fear mongering runs wild as the headline reads Chemo in short supply.

Date:   12/17/2008 4:20:26 PM ( 16 y ago)

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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