From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have
received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than
mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started
this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for
answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The
following entry appeared in October of 2011.
Though I talked
very briefly some time ago about what the various chemotherapy drugs that my
wife was treated with were “for”, I never really went into any kind of detail.
Now that chemo
is “over”, I wanted to explore what some of the long-term and lasting effects
of the treatment are. Because she reached that time – what with the odd numbing
of her upper lip, the incision pains, swollen ankles and dry skin, I’d like to
know which of those things is chemo-derived and which ones are not.
So we’ll start
here:
Taxotere: (This
is the “brand name” drug, its generic name is docetaxel) anti-mitotic chemotherapy medication
(that is, it interferes with cell division). This is the “simple” answer I
gave on May 7 (http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2011/05/bust-drug.html).
But what exactly does it do and does it have long-term side-effects and any
OTHER impact on the Human body?
“You may have a
higher risk of developing certain serious side effects such as low levels of
certain types of blood cells, severe mouth sores, severe skin reactions, and
death. Docetaxel injection may cause low levels of white blood cells in the blood…fever,
chills, sore throat, or other signs of infection…serious or life-threatening
fluid retention. Fluid retention does not usually start immediately, and most
commonly occurs around the fifth dosing cycle. If you experience any of the
following symptoms, call your doctor immediately: swelling of the hands, feet,
ankles, or lower legs; weight gain; shortness of breath; chest pain;cough;
hiccups; rapid breathing; fainting; lightheadedness; swelling of the stomach
area; pale, grayish skin; or pounding heartbeat…nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation,
changes in taste, extreme tiredness, muscle, joint, or bone pain, hair loss, nail
changes, increased eye tearing, sores in the mouth and throat, redness,
dryness, or swelling at the site where the medication was injected, blistering
skin, numbness, tingling, or burning sensation in the hands or feet, weakness
in the hands and feet, unusual bleeding or bruising, nosebleeds.”
OK – yes to some
of those, no to lots of them.
From Wikipedia
Taxotere:
“Docetaxel is
partly-synthetic copy of Taxol, an extract from the bark of the rare
Pacific yew tree. Due to scarcity of the tree, Taxotere was extracted from the
common European yew tree.”
“Docetaxel is a
white powder and is the active ingredient in Taxotere. The solution is a clear
brown-yellow…a single dose contains ethanol, saline, sodium chloride or glucose
for administration plus polysorbate 80…vials may be stored for 24 months below
25°C away from light.”
“The
cell-killing activity of docetaxel promotes and stabilizes microtubule assembly
(microtubules make up the cell structure called a “spindle” – it’s that happens
when cells divide. It also prevents microtubule disassembly in the absence of GTP.
This leads to a significant decrease in free tubulin, needed for
microtubule formation and results in inhibition of mitotic cell division
between metaphase and anaphase, preventing further cancer cells from forming. Because
microtubules do not disassemble in the presence of docetaxel, they accumulate
inside the cell and cause initiation of cell suicide (apoptosis).”
“Docetaxel is a
chemotherapy drug and is a cell killing compound and so is effectively a
biologically damaging drug...docetaxel is toxic to all dividing cells in the
body. This includes tumour cells as well as hair follicles, bone
marrow and other germ cells.”
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