Short sup­ply of com­mon­ly used can­cer drugs rais­es con­cerns among hos­pi­tal phar­ma­cists

Ex­perts who track drug sup­ply and care for can­cer pa­tients say they are watch­ing with con­cern about short­ages of sev­er­al gener­ic drugs that are wide­ly used in treat­ing can­cer pa­tients.

Three drugs used in var­i­ous can­cer treat­ments are cur­rent­ly on the short­age list kept by the Amer­i­can So­ci­ety of Health-Sys­tem Phar­ma­cists (ASHP). Those in­clude methotrex­ate, which treats can­cer by slow­ing the growth of can­cer cells; cis­platin, a back­bone of chemother­a­py for ad­vanced can­cers in the ovaries, blad­der and oth­er lo­ca­tions; and flu­o­rouracil, an­oth­er wide­ly used chemother­a­py drug.

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