ENCORE #64! – Taxotere: What’s it DO?

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 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?

From: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000987/#

“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.”

From: http://www.cancersupportivecare.com/late.html

“Long-term effects are side effects or complications of therapy that persist when therapy is completed, requiring patients to develop compensatory treatment programs to relieve or control these side effects…chemotherapy can cause damage to vital organs, such as heart, lungs, kidneys, and the gastrointestinal tract. Older persons over 65 and 70 may have pre-existing heart, lung, kidney, gastrointestinal, or liver problems, which can be accentuated with anti-cancer therapy, as these organs may be more susceptible to side effects from treatment. 

Peripheral neuropathy, for example, pain, numbness, tingling, loss of sensation or heat/cold sensitivity in extremities or body, is often a side effect for patients receiving Taxotere...”

From: http://www.caring.com/questions/taxotere-side-effects

“Melanie Haiken, (Caring.com senior editor) notes: Taxotere (brand name Taxol) has many of the same side effects of other chemo drugs, but some are better than others, some are worse…taxotere caused a lot of bone pain and muscle aches. Some say their arms and legs ache, while others say the pain is worst in the neck, back, and shoulders; neuropathy, or nerve damage, which makes feet and hands feel tingly or numb…The good news is that taxotere seems to cause less nausea for many cancer patients than other chemo drugs, such as the A/C it often follows. Hair loss may also be less of a problem…Side effects are very individual, and they also vary according to dosage.”

So, we’re still on the journey and while I by no means “understand” what’s been going on, others have and there are places to find information.

Keep looking; keep learning!

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg