Avis Ward

FDA: Johnson & Johnson’s Gel for Diabetic Foot Ulcers Could Heighten Cancer Risk



Posted: Sunday, June 08, 2008

by
GeoVi's Home for Pregnant Teens

If you have diabetes, you are at risk for having a diabetic foot wound. The medical term for diabetic foot wound is diabetic foot ulcer.

Regranex (pronounced ree-gran-x) Gel is a prescription drug for the treatment of deep neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers. Regranex Gel is the only FDA-approved prescription medicine that contains a growth factor that helps your body heal. It is a "man-made version of a substance produced by the human body that helps heal ulcers."

Diabetic foot wounds can be successfully treated and healed. The key to healing is the right information. Apparently, the Food and Drug Administration has found the right information. The FDA is warning patients that using large amounts of Regranex could heighten their risk of dying from cancer.

The new boxed warning states that "patients who used three or more tubes of Regranex over a 20-month period were five times more likely to die of cancer." This is a very serious warning.

Diabetes sufferers could perhaps benefit from the information found on J & J's subsidiary's website for Regranex. It has to be important to first:

Understand Diabetic Foot Ulcers – knowledge is power and a clear understanding of the risks associated with developing foot ulcers with this disease can lead to . . .

Preventing Diabetic Foot Ulcers – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

If you are a diabetic, knowing this information could prove beneficial to your health and long-term management of the disease.

Patients are usually told the benefits associated with prescription medications must outweigh the risks before it's prescribed. The report stated that when patients used lower amounts of the cream, the FDA said their chances of developing cancer were no higher than patients who had never used the drug. The new label, which is outlined in a black box, advises doctors to use caution when prescribing the drug to patients with malignancies.

"The findings come from a long-term analysis of records from healthcare providers comparing 1,600 patients who took Regranex with 2,700 patients who did not," according to the FDA.

Johnson & Johnson is said to be cooperating with the FDA on the new label and is "committed to getting the information out to physicians and patients." Regranex is marketed by Ethicon Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

Avis Ward of AWard Company, LLC

Avis is founder of El Elyon Outpouring Center, an Empowerment Outreach Ministry emphasizing God’s Unconditional Love and Grace and GeoVi’s Home for New Life, a nonprofit providing faith, hope, and love to teens, pregnant teens and their babies. She's CEO of Providential Coaching, a Christian Life coaching practice teaching young women how-to turn within for divine direction to learn and follow the plan God has for their lives. She's the host and creator of Devoted Housewives in the House of God, an Internet Radio Talk Show. Speaker, Seminar Leader and an Ambassador of Love. Avis respectfully acknowledges her deceased parents as her role models, and the hero and heroine in her life.
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