Critical Cancer Drug Running Out

Bad news for Americans with childhood leukemia: A critical medicine used to treat the disease is so hard to find that hundreds or thousands of kids could die, the New York Times reports. Methotrexate, typically used to treat leukemia in children aged 2 to 5, fell into short supply after an Ohio company stopped making it due to "manufacturing and quality concerns." Says an FDA official: "This is dire. Supplies are just not meeting demand.”

Four other methotrexate manufacturers in the US are trying to pick up the slack, and the FDA is seeking a foreign supplier. "But if we can’t get this drug anymore, that sets us back decades," says the president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Worse, this is not an isolated case: At least 180 drugs needed to treat childhood leukemia, colon cancer, and breast cancer have fallen into short supply so far this year. (More leukemia stories.)