Medication used to treat the most common form of childhood leukemia is in short supply, adding to the largest nationwide shortage of critical lifesaving hospital medications in nearly a decade.

All five pharmaceutical companies that make the injection drug methotrexate, which treats acute lymphoblastic leukemia by slowing the growth of cancer cells, have either slowed and stopped manufacturing of the drug, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The companies have cited high demand or manufacturing delays as reasons for the shortage.

If the shortage continues, physicians and pharmacists fear thousands of children will be left without lifesaving treatment.

‘This, to us in oncology, is a national crisis,’ said Brooke Bernhardt, clinical pharmacy specialist in the department of hematology and oncology at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

According to Dr. Michael Link, pediatric oncologist and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, some hospital pharmacies have reported having only a couple weeks of supply left.

Many oncologists are especially worried about the shortage of the preservative-free form of methotrexate, which is considered less toxic.

Only the preservative-free methotrexate can be injected into the spinal fluid of cancer patients to prevent the spread and recurrence of the disease.

‘There are couple other drugs that can be […]