Patients with cancer face a crisis due to an ongoing shortage of essential chemotherapeutic drugs (Table).1 Consequently, hospitals are rationing care, leading to delays, reduced doses, and less effective treatments. This crisis exacerbates burnout, disrupts research, raises the risk of errors, and undermines cancer outcomes.

A failed US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection of a plant in India supplying critical chemotherapy drugs to the US triggered recent shortages of carboplatin and cisplatin, injectable chemotherapies that are part of frontline regimens for several cancer types, including pediatric cancers. The halted production due to deficiencies in product purity and sterility led to severe shortages, with 93% of cancer centers reporting carboplatin scarcity and 70% facing cisplatin scarcity.3

 

 

Citation

Yang YT, Socal M, Bennett CL. Addressing the Drug-Shortage Crisis in Oncology. JAMA Oncol. Published online January 04, 2024. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.5722