Fight Colorectal Cancer

Although US federal law requires a valid prescription to purchase prescription medicine over the Internet, at least 8,000 rogue sites break that law every day.

And, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found Internet searching results are being manipulated to send searchers to web sites with links to those illegal pharmacies.

Following results for 218 drug-related searches over a nine month period in 2010 and 2011, the Carnegie Mellon team found one-third of the searches directed to infected sites with links to illicit online pharmacies. Read the rest of this entry »

Leucovorin is available — but at over 3000 percent markup on the gray market.

And there is no guarantee that the drug has been handled safely, is not counterfeit or stolen, or is even leucovorin.

The gray market is taking huge advantage of  struggling health care pharmacists trying meet pressures causes by drug shortages. Read the rest of this entry »

Fight Colorectal Cancer held its August 2011 webinar on Wednesday night. The webinar focused on the timely issue of cancer funding and ways that advocates can get involved in the fight to protect it.

Led by David Pugach of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the audience learned about the current state of cancer research funding and its outlook based on the budget crunch that Congress is facing.

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This morning the FDA added fluorouracil to its drug shortage list. The American Society of Healthcare Pharmacists (ASHP) has also reported a shortage of fluorouracil (5-FU), a common backbone drug for colorectal cancer chemotherapy.

Two manufacturers have some doses of the drug on intermittent back order and are shipping it as it becomes available.  A third has all dose vials on back order and estimates shipping sometime in the fourth quarter of 2011.

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Developing tender swelling or rash on their hands and feet may actually be good news for patients being treated with Xeloda® (capecitabine).

During a recent clinical trial, colorectal cancer patients with hand-foot syndrome lived longer, and it took longer for their cancer to get worse.

Researchers comparing two Xeloda-based chemotherapies for people with advanced colorectal cancer, studied skin side effects from both Xeloda and Erbitux® (cetuximab).  They found that about a third of patients experienced at least some hand-foot syndrome, and these patients lived almost 10 months longer than patients without skin changes. Read the rest of this entry »