Docetaxel Research Paper

Docetaxel, also known as toxetere, is used as an anti- cancer chemotherapy drug. It is used to treat cases of breast, lung, prostate, head, and neck cancer. Docetaxel is administered through IV. The amount of docetaxel patients receive depends on a lot of factors. Factors such as height, weight, the type of cancer being treated, and how far along the cancer has developed factors into how much medicine the patients receive. Use of docetaxel can result in low white and red blood cell counts. This increases chances of infections and may cause anemia. Other side effects of the drug can be hair loss, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, low platelet counts(increases chances of bleeding), mouth sores, fatigue, etc.
Docetaxel is from the drug class taxane. Taxanes are diterpenes. Diterpenes is a class of chemical compounds made of two terpene units. Terpenes are a large and various group of organic compounds that come from plants, mainly conifers. Docetaxel is also a semi-synthetic analogue of paclitaxel. Paclitaxel is also used to treat cancers. Docetaxel and paclitaxel are from the same family of taxane drugs. Paclitaxel is a scarce drug. The scarcity of paclitaxel lead to a lot of research that developed the drug docetaxel. Docetaxel is different from paclitaxel in its chemical structure. Docetaxel has a hydroxyl functional group on carbon 10. This …show more content…
Varying side effects have been documented. Docetaxel is cytotoxic in dividing all cells in the body. This means it is toxic to all the cells it is dividing in the body. This includes a variety of cells like tumor cells, bone marrow, hair follicles, and many other germs. This causing a common side effect of the chemotherapy: hair loss. In most cases the hair grows back after the treatment is completed. In other cases, the hair loss is permanent. Docetaxel can also affect patients fluid retention, can cause them to get infections, and it can affect their