A national survey shows that a shortage of drugs is taking a heavy toll on cancer patients as treatments are being delayed.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators played an eminent role in a national survey on professional health, which found that drug shortage is taking a heavy toll on cancer patients. Treatments are being either changed of delayed, which in some patients are leading to worse outcomes, more therapy-related complications and higher costs.
The survey involved questioning oncology pharmacists and others engaged in managing cancer drug shortages for academic medical centers, community hospitals and other cancer treatment facilities nationwide.
Around 243 individuals completed the survey and from among them, 98 percent said they had experienced and dealt with drug shortage of at least one chemotherapy agent or other essential cancer-related drugs in the previous 12 months. Ninety three percent of the individuals also reported that this shortage had led to delays in chemotherapy and changes in other cancer drug therapy.
The shortage also disrupted cancer research and increased the cost of both the research as well as cancer treatments.
"This survey documents the risk that drug shortages pose to cancer patients of all ages," said the study's senior author, James Hoffman, Pharm.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the hospital's medication outcomes and safety officer. "To cure cancer patients we must often use complex treatment regimens, and shortages add unnecessary complexity. Unlike medications for other diseases, there are few, if any, therapeutically equivalent alternatives available for many oncology drugs in short supply.
"Drug supplies remain unpredictable and serious problems persist," Hoffman said. In February, the University of Utah Drug Information Service was tracking national and regional shortages of more than 320 drugs, which is the highest number since 2010. The University service tracks drug shortages and provides advice about managing scarcities through the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
The results will be published in the April 1 edition of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy.
