Leukemia was mostly a fatal disease when Hagop Kantarjian, a medical student at the American University of Lebanon in Beirut, first came to MD Anderson in 1978.
Proven curative regimens containing platinum-based drugs—cisplatin and carboplatin—have become largely unavailable because of a nationwide drug shortage. The institutions that have some supplies of cisplatin and carboplatin are setting up algorithms for rationing their dwindling stocks, which usually means giving top priority to patients treated with curative intent and denying standard-of-care treatment to patients who cannot be cured but who can still benefit from these drugs.
