Taxotere vs Taxol

Must choose between Taxotere and Taxol. Definitely want to avoid neuropathy. Can you log in on the side effects you experienced?

2 years ago, I took Taxol 12x weekly (after dose-dense A/C). I did not have much neuropathy; I was able to button shirts & tie my shoelaces, as if I did not take Taxol in the first place. Muscle/bone aches, though just occasionally, were more promiment in my case.

I think that to avoid neuropathy as much as possible, you would want to go weekly, not every 3 weeks. I asked my onc, why weekly? So, there you are.

Also, my other question was, why not Taxotere, instead of Taxol? My onc said, at the moment it was just marketing. Meaning that, even though there may have been some mentions out there that Taxotere seemed to be better than Taxol, both of them still had pretty much the same quality.

Was she right? Good question! Since Taxol & Taxotere are very similar, I did not really push my onc for one or another, including extra research on the taxanes.

If you know anything else, please chime in! I do wonder about this myself, from time to time....

Have you asked you onc about Abraxane? It is the reformulated Taxol. I had Taxol and it is a 3 hour infusion plus premeds. Taxotere isn't as long an infusion. Abraxane takes 30 minutes and is double the strength ....I did not have any problems with Taxol or Taxotere...only chemo mouth, bad taste and dead taste buds for a few days. No pins & needles. I also had wallpaper paste tounge with Abraxane and my hair is blowing out.

I faced the same dilemma when chosing between Taxotere and Taxol. There is definitely hype associated with Taxotere being better because it is more potent, but that really means they give you a lower dose compared to Taxol, so it ends up being 6 or 1/2 dozen of the other . There are definitely more side affects associated with Taxotere. The only real evidence supporting the superiority of Taxotere was in ER+ breast cancer. It seems to be a little more active than Taxol in this case. My wife did Taxol and had about a 90% response doing the weekly regimen, and now I question whtether the Taxotere would have gotten the last 10% as she was ER+. She did have some lingering neuropathy in her feet, but it finally resolved itself about a year out. Also, she combined the Taxol with Herceptin and carboplatin, if you can get these two in addition to either agent there is synergy between the drugs.

Hope this helps,

Scott

[StephN]

Hi -
Weekly Taxol was MUCH easier on me than Taxotere (every 3 weeks I had it), which I thought would KILL me.
Also, my Taxol infusion was not anything like 3 hours as Cindy says. So, do not know why hers took so long.

You need to take L-glutamine to help against neuropathy - so it, it works as many here can attest. Also, folic acid and B-6.

I just completed 6 rounds of Taxotere, Epirubicin and Cytoxin on 5/18/05. Being that I did ALL together, I'm not sure what did what. The first 5 weren't too bad though the 6th one landed me in the hospital for 3 days but. my goal was to get all my treatments on time and at full dose which I did. I figure if it was kicking my hiney, it was doing something to any potential remaining cancer. Good luck in your decision.

I had taxotere but never taxol. I was able to do alot less anti nausea meds and mentally I was much clearer compared to how I felt while doing the AC. I did not experience any neuropathy. My onc felt more comfortable managing the side effects of taxotere and did not present it as being better than taxol. I did expereince severe bone pain during 2 of the treatments that we thought was due to the neulasta shot. The bone pain lasted about a week each time. I am not sure what the actual cause was because I had neulasta during each treatment.

Hope this helps-
Tami

I had both. Initially, I had wanted Taxotere because research at that time suggested it worked better with Herceptin; however, my onc would not give it to me. I started on the Taxol and was hypersensitive to it. In fact I was in severe agony with it for about 6 days. My onc. then offered me the Taxotere for the 2nd treatment but I decided to try the Taxol again. I had same reaction but it lasted one day less. I then switched to Taxotere for the 3rd and 4th treatments. I found the Taxotere much less painful and easier to tolerate. However, some have the opposite effect. I don't think there is any way to know for sure--beforehand.
Best of luck with whatever you decide--{{{Hugs}}}

Thank you ALL for your input.

Found this article today
BOSTON, June 1 (Reuters) - Breast cancer patients who take the Sanofi-Aventis <SASY.PA><SNY.N> drug docetaxel instead of the older medicine flurouracil cut their risk of death by 30 percent, researchers said on Wednesday.

Among the women who received docetaxel, "there's no group of patients that didn't benefit, so you can't pick out someone who's not a winner from the new treatment," said study author John Mackey of the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, Canada.

The benefit of the docetaxel combination "was so large and so striking, it's turned a lot of heads. It's a high water mark for chemotherapy. It has catapulted the (docetaxel) regimen into being a standard of care," Mackey told Reuters.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 1,491 women across 20 countries whose tumors had spread to at least one lymph node. Each drug was used in combination with two other commonly used anti-cancer medicines, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide.

The docetaxel treatment, which is already the standard of care in many cancer centers, reduced the risk of death after five years by 30 percent, bringing the survival rate up to 87 percent, compared to 81 percent for patients using flurouracil.

Docetaxel also reduced the recurrence of cancer. Of the patients put on docetaxel, 25 percent had their breast tumors reappear after five years, compared to 32 percent of those using flurouracil.

Researchers, however, found that the docetaxel combination increased the risk of some serious side effects such as diarrhea and mouth sores. On the other hand, docetaxel produced significantly less nausea and vomiting than flurouracil.

Another advantage of the docetaxel therapy was that it produced better results no matter how far the breast cancer cells had spread through nearby lymph nodes.

The flurouracil treatment "was a reasonable choice during the treatment period of 1995 to 1998, but this may not be the case in 2005," said Edith Perez of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

But in her editorial in the Journal, Perez said the side effects and the fact that the treatment was not tested on women older than 70 "cannot be minimized."

HI! I had taxotere first but after the first dose in the middle of the nite
i woke with severe burns to my hands and feet from the inside out,
they said they were a rare side effect. they peeled terribly and itched terribly and then they finally healed. They switched me to taxol which did only give me this tingly thing in hands and feet. so thats my take on it.
Nancy Love
ps of course we are all different