I have come across the following case study about persistant severe alopecia cause by Taxotere. Some of you might find this interesting
Women developing PSA group A 0/258 0%
group b 0/126 0%
group c 7/112 6.3%
Sedlacek SM.. Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, Denver, CO
Unfortunately, the one side effect possibly most dreaded by the patient is alopecia. Yet, we have always told our female patients dont worry, it will always come back. This last statement may not be true.
Materials Methods: Consecutive patients treated by the author from 1/94 through 12/04 (11 years) with adjuvant chemotherapy were reviewed. Group A- doxorubicin regimen without a taxane (AC, FAC, A/CMF). Group B- doxorubicin plus paclitaxel (AC/T, AT/T, AC/T dose dense, ATC, AC/THerceptin). Group C- doxorubicin plus docetaxel (AC/Tax, ATax, ACTax, AC/TaxXeloda, AC/TaxHerceptin, ATax/CAF, CAF/Tax). Women who underwent high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue were excluded. Only patients with at least one year of follow-up post adjuvant chemotherapy were included. The average time from the last dose of chemotherapy was 48 months (range 19-85 months). PSA was defined as hair regrowth less than 50% of the pre-chemotherapy amount of hair as judged by both the patient and the author.
So, you can see from he above case study that group A & B didnt have Taxotere. Group c did.
Medics in the know about PSA (persistant severe alopecia) all admit that they believe the figures are much higher than 6%.
In the last month i have had 3 women from the UK contact me suffering from PSA. This is just the tip of the iceberg in the UK.
