Taxotere breast cancer treatment is often given to women who need to go undergo chemotherapy to address a recent diagnosis of cancer. Unfortunately, Taxotere has been associated with permanent hair loss, also known as alopecia.

Numerous women who sustained permanent hair loss while using the Taxotere breast cancer treatment are coming forward with lawsuits arguing that the manufacturer of this chemotherapy, Sanofi-Aventis, failed to disclose the risk of permanent hair loss that has caused emotional injuries for the women who have suffered.

One United Kingdom study in 2013 identified that as many as 15 percent of women who underwent the Taxotere treatment experienced permanent hair loss. The possibility of irreversible alopecia was mentioned on the warning labels for Taxotere in Canada and in the European Union in 2005. However, it was over a decade later that these warnings were included in the U.S. patient information.

Thousands of Taxotere patients who have suffered long term hair loss have already chosen to file lawsuits. Many of the patients who have chosen to file lawsuits argue that Sanofi-Aventis was well aware of the possibility of permanent hair loss and downplayed the risks, leaving women to cope with the consequences after the fact.

What is Taxotere?

Taxotere is a synthetic version of the naturally occurring compound referred to as taxol. Taxol is used to treat solid tumor cancers and has been shown to inhibit malignant tumor growth. Taxol, however, comes with the risk of tissue damage and inflammation if it is not appropriately administered.

Because of this, manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis believed they could produce a better product and made a synthetic version in Taxotere. The toxicity, according to lawsuits, has to do with the same molecule being made twice as strong to corner the market share for breast cancer chemotherapy treatments.

According to WebMD, chemotherapy drugs that can be used to treat early breast cancer include anthracyclines or taxanes, which is the class of drugs including Taxotere and Taxol.

Chemotherapy treatments are used to destroy cancer cells in the body, including original cancer site cells and those that may have spread to other portions of the body.

There are many different types of chemotherapy treatments available and in most cases a combination of two or more of these will be used for breast cancer chemotherapy regimens.

Chemo and Hair Loss

For a person who chooses chemotherapy as a cancer treatment option, it’s well known that this can lead to short-term hair loss. For the women who have developed alopecia post-Taxotere use, however, they say the drug’s maker failed to disclose the risk. Plaintiffs say this fact would follow them for the rest of their life.

A women who breast cancer goes into remission often wants to remove reminders of that difficult time from her life, and the social and emotional toll of permanently losing her hair can be difficult to bear.

Women who have brought lawsuits say that the makers of the Taxotere treatment should have made a bigger effort to notify women about this possible long-term side effect so that the patients could have made more informed decisions for themselves.