Dr. Zhang on her institute’s experience with the drug shortage in bladder and other cancers
"We as a center prioritized using cisplatin and carboplatin for patients who are receiving curative intent chemotherapy," says Tian Zhang, MD.
In this video, Tian Zhang, MD, associate professor of Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, describes her institute’s experience with the ongoing drug shortage affecting patients with bladder and other cancers.
Video transcript
There has been a cisplatin and carboplatin shortage and also 5-fluorouracil for a time. We as a center prioritized using cisplatin and carboplatin for patients who are receiving curative intent chemotherapy. So oftentimes these were patients in the neoadjuvant setting for bladder cancer, for example, for whom we were prioritizing our supply of platinum. And thankfully, we have not run across a complete shortage; we're able to treat our patients who need curative intent chemotherapies, but it has been certainly a pervasive issue, particularly in our metastatic patient populations who may not have access to the platinum chemotherapies.
Another way we have tailored our practice a bit to help is to, for example for 5-FU, we have also changed our patients over capecitabine when appropriate to use the oral formulation. So I think there are ways that cancer centers can sort of pivot and try to prioritize patients, but it has certainly made an impact on some of our practice patterns.
Transcript has been added for clarity
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