Doctor: Shortage impedes treatments

In April, 8-year-old Carson Cooper of Des Moines discovered a small, pea-sized bump beneath his chin while at the movies with his dad.

A month later Carson came out of the shower with bruises covering his legs.

“We asked ‘Did you get in a fight? Hit something?'” said Carson's father, Jack Cooper, 41.

When Carson said “no,” his parents took him to the emergency room. That night, Carson learned he had leukemia.

“That first night was horrible,” said Cooper, “but what was a lot worse was to have to go out and tell Carson.”

Leukemia, cancer of the blood, is the most common form of childhood cancer. And where there was once little chance of surviving the disease, today's treatments have a cure rate of more than 90 percent.

Carson spent the month of May at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines under the care of pediatric oncologist Dr. Wendy Woods-Swafford. Blank is a member of the Children's Oncology Group, a cancer research institute with an international presence, which Woods-Swafford says ensures that Des Moines patients get the same treatments they would anywhere in the world.

But Woods-Swafford received troubling news during Carson's last week of treatment. Daunorubicin, the next drug on Carson's regimen, was unavailable. Carson would take an alternative drug, called Doxorubicin.

“Frankly, when your kid is fighting cancer, you don't want a second best solution,” said Cooper.

Carson is one of five cases where Woods-Swafford has had to find substitutes for well-established injectable chemotherapy due to national drug shortages.

Woods-Swafford said the shortages have impeded her ability to offer patients the best treatment possible.

“You need the tools to be successful,” Woods-Swafford said. “It's hard when parents ask, is this going to affect my child's chances? Are they potentially going to die from this? And I don't have an answer for them.”

Cooper said Carson has remained a happy child.

“He sings in the shower,” said Cooper. And so far Carson's test results show treatments have been successful, putting him in remission.

But it makes Carson's family uneasy knowing they won't see the long-term effects of his treatment for years, likely decades.

“There are so many unknowns,” said Cooper. “Wondering if the drugs are going to be there should not be one of them.”