Taxotere (docetaxel) is a cancer drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996 for the treatment of breast cancer. The latter was the original indication. Taxotere has since been expanded to include head and neck cancer, gastric cancer, prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. And while the drug is deemed to be effective, a troubling adverse reaction has been emerging in recent years…Permanent hair loss, otherwise known as Taxotere alopecia. Plaintiffs in Taxotere lawsuits allege that while the Taxotere label has always suggested hair loss was possible, there was no suggestion that such docetaxel side effects could be permanent, or so it is alleged. Patients claim that had they known, they would have opted for the less potent but equally effective Taxol, which is described as not fostering permanent hair loss.
This is nothing new.
Taxotere plaintiff Hattie Carson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and was prescribed chemotherapy with Taxotere. When her hair failed to grow back after six months, Carson was diagnosed with Taxotere alopecia - permanent hair loss.
Following the issuance of an FDA warning in December of last year, and a subsequent update to the Taxotere boxed warning with regard to the potential for permanent hair loss, Carson has launched a Taxotere side effects lawsuit in US District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Case No. 1:16-cv-00165). “Although alopecia is a common side effect related to chemotherapy drugs, permanent alopecia is not,” Carson’s lawsuit states. “Defendants, through its publications and marketing material, misled Plaintiff, the public, and the medical community to believe that, as with other chemotherapy drugs that cause alopecia, patients’ hair would grow back.”
Various lawsuits suggest that Taxotere manufacturer Sanofi’s own studies suggested three percent of cancer patients experienced persistent or permanent hair loss following treatment with docetaxel. However, an independent study in 2006 suggested that upwards of 6.3 percent of breast cancer patients succeeded in growing back less than 50 percent of their hair Although alopecia is a common side effect related to chemotherapy drugs, permanent alopecia is not. A subsequent study published by the National Cancer Research Institute in 2013 found permanent hair loss as a side effect in 10-15 percent of patients who took Taxotere.
It’s not just the United States that is affected. Canada is also seeing Taxotere lawsuits, after Health Canada was alerted to the issue in 2012. It’s unclear why Canada and Europe before that (in 2005) were alerted previously, but Sanofi-Aventis allegedly failed to notify the FDA until late winter in 2015.
And even though Canada was brought into the Taxotere alopecia loop four years ago, it was far too late for Cynthia MacGregor of Montreal, who told The Globe and Mail (3/4/10) in 2010 that “I had a normal head of hair and I am now completely bald.” MacGregor has been diagnosed with alopecia universalis, a loss of all body hair. She hasn’t a single hair on her body, not even eyebrows or eyelashes. When she goes out, people stare.
“It's devastating,” MacGregor told The Globe and Mail.
“With no hair, there is no going back to normal.”
READ MORE TAXOTERE HAIR LOSS LEGAL NEWS
Various Taxotere plaintiffs suggest they were not given a choice. Had they known about docetaxel side effects including permanent hair loss, they would have opted for Taxol.
READER COMMENTS
Kelli
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Jo-Ann Harvey
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Marty Geringer
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Debora C Gay
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I also lost all my fingernails and toenails, some which never grew back on my toes. I have also sufferred from permanent tearduct collecting tubule scarring which causes constant epiphoria, watering of the eyes and tears streaming down my face.Running my makeup and looks like I am crying all the time. I have had 3 separated sets of silicone stents placed to try and fix the problem as well and painful tear duct dialations. I would like to join the lawsuit
Linda Underwood
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Julie Byers
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Sharon Boito
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Sherri Pfeiffer
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Being alive ! Yes I wish I had hair like I use to but again I'm alive ! So I get a weave put in once a month and move on with my wonderful life !
Mary
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michal holcomb
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Jean Taylor
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Kudos and Kumbaya to you! You are definitely entitled to feel the way you feel, just as myself and others are entitled to our feelings. Personally, that journey was very personal and private to me. I went out of my way to keep my secret. However, after years of being bald I choose to no longer wear irritating wigs. I am constantly subjected to total strangers asking me if I have cancer, offering me prayers, wanting to know if I am undergoing chemotherapy, and addressing me as Sir.
For more than 10 years I have not been able to resume the normalcy I desperately looked forward to because I am bald. Yes, I am alive. But I could be alive with hair had Taxol been offered to me. The treating oncologist never mentioned another alternative drug for me. She said this what you will be given and that I was not a candidate for any other drug. Had I been given the opportunity to to choose another drug I would have. Especially, since I also suffer daily with painful .neuropathy.
Please don't tell others how to feel or how to live because you are one person, just as I am. It is not a pleasant feeling to be constantly approached by strangers and stared out. Unfortunately, the opposite sex no longer finds me attractive because of my lack of hair. Most times my confidence is low. So yes, if there is compensation I feel I deserve it. Especially, when it seems this drug manufacturer knew or should have known that permanent hair loss could happen to women. This should not be downplayed because we are alive. Many of us were not informed, and deprived of making a choice. Apparently, doctors were so smitten with this so-called superior drug that they made choices for many of us. I have not been able to move forward because in reality the fact is that hair does matter in this world we live in. You should do some research before stating how unfortunate it is that women are seeking to join this lawsuit. And don't assume we are not contrbuting positively to our communities!!!!
Vicki Johnson
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Nonita Grice
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Carol
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David Swinney
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Naomi
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I think they are using 2005 as a reference because that's the year Sanofi Aventis released a study stating Taxotere has caused permanent hair loss. However, the study states women were noted to have permanent hair loss for up 10 yrs and 5 mos prior to the release of the study named GEICAM something? With that being said, then someone knew women suffered hair loss from at least 1995. It only took 6 mos for us to realize how hair was not ref rowing! So, why are these lawyers excluding these women?
Doctors just shrugged their shoulders and acted as if I should be thankful to be alive. And that is not fair when there could have been another drug offered to me. But the treating oncologist in my health just said this is what you must take for a chance of survival. I never heard of taxol until this lawsuit came about. All I knew was that I was not a candidate for tamoxifen. I would have chosen taxol, had I bee givens choice.
These lawyers need reevaluate their decision to exclude women whose treatment was not in 2005 or after!
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nicole travassos
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I have no eye brows, or eye lashes .I am just completely hairless
of course I was told my hair lost would be temporary. This is 8 years later still no hair. maybe some peach fuzz.
I heard about a law suit on a cable channel just last week .Thank you for reading.My hair has not grown back. I would love to join the lawsuit.
Emily
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Mary Jones
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MarieGriffin
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Ann
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Sandra
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I am truly sorry that you lost your mother, it is a horrible disease.
You really can not understand what it is like to be bald from chemo, women count the days to get their hair back.
Yes you saw your mother, but unless the cancer is in your body ( hopefully not ever) you will never know what it is like.
When it comes back like a rug, slow growing or thin it is very hard to cope. People stare , I hate it.
The problem with this drug is that the doctors, nor patients were warned about this ahead of time so that we can make that decision to change drugs or be ok with balding.
They knew about this tendency , yet they didn't warn people.
CAROL LYNNE MOHLER
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We all do what we think best at the time.
Chemo cured her for almost 5 years. God gave us 5 more years so my youngest brother was 17 instead of 12.
My father, family and friends loved her inspite of her hair loss and loss of one breast. She only got to see one child married and never got to see her grandchildren, or a long list of other wonderful things
If your hair is more important than your life, then maybe you need to fix some things in your life.
If suing makes you happy then enjoy. It still won't bring back your hair.
But make changes in your life that remind you to thankful you survived.
Tammy Dick
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Bathanay Whitfall
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Ann Drennan
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in the women's bodies. This information is known to oncologists but they go ahead and prescribe chemo anyway probably because they make a lot of money on chemo. Here is a website covering the subject:
medicalxpress.com/news/2015-12-women-luminal-subtype-breast-cancer.html#nRlv
There are tests that can be done to predict whether a patient might benefit from chemo. These tests usually find that only about half of the cancer patients will benefit from chemo. If it is not clear that a patient will benefit from chemo, (as outlined in the first link), then the tests should be performed before subjecting patients to chemo. Chemo is harsh and barbaric, and 'kicks you when you are down'. When patients have a life threatening disease, and are facing surgery and radiation, the last thing they need is
pointless chemo to further sicken and weaken them. It is more than losing your hair. Chemo significantly weakens the immune system and you need your immune system to survive cancer after the treatments are over. Chemo has many other serious side effects like weakening your heart.
Here are two links about the tests that determine whether chemo might be effective:
medicalxpress.com/news/2016-04-breast-cancer-patients-chemo.html
nbcnews.com/id/22248036/ns/health-cancer/t/more-breast-cancer-patients-can-skip-chemo/#.V0tdXuTmD4Z
I have breast cancer and I was prescribed docetaxel and
cyclophosphamide. The first round of chemo did not go well
and while I was waiting to recover, I started searching the
internet to learn the down side of dropping out of chemo. I found that, as described in the above first link, I am a "luminal A subtype" and unlikely to benefit from chemo,
so I dropped out of chemo. I also found a new team of doctors to work with. I suggest to the legal experts dealing with unnecessary hair loss due to chemo that
it would be a good idea expand your focus to the damages inflicted by unnecessary chemo that approximately half of all cancer patients are suffering. So, adding insult to injury, when a patient suffers permanent hair loss from chemo, half the time that patient should not have been
prescribed chemo in the first place. As for my hair-so far, my hair seems to be growing back although it has only been 3 weeks so it remains to be seen whether it
will be the same.
Sharon Ostern
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Cathy Nguyen
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I live in FL. Received 6 treatments of Taxotere along with Carboplatin and Herceptin starting in Jan 2014 . As of today, more than 2 years later, I am still partially bald.
Nancy Marrone
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Janet cruz
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I was given it 12 times in 2011 for breadt cancer. And nothing
Is the same since than.
Cynthia Thomas
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Judi Fang
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