A woman has filed a lawsuit against the makers of Taxotere regarding her failed hair growth after chemo.

Plaintiff Hilda R. says she underwent Taxotere chemotherapy treatments for cancer from December 2013 to April 2014. She understood that temporary hair loss often accompanies standard chemotherapy treatments, but she allegedly has experienced little hair growth after chemo.

According to Hilda’s complaint, she “experienced significant hair loss after taking Taxotere, and to date, her hair has not grown back to the same level and quality as before chemotherapy started.”

Failure of Hair Growth After Chemo Allegedly Hidden

Taxotere has often been used by women fighting breast cancer. The patients who see no hair growth after chemo allegedly “are stigmatized with the universal cancer signifier – baldness – long after they underwent cancer treatment, and their hair loss acts as a permanent reminder that they are cancer victims,” says the Taxotere MDL.

With no eyelashes, no eyebrows, no body hair, and no hair on their heads, these women often suffer from social isolation even after successfully fighting off cancer. Some women have sparse peach fuzz on their heads, but in no way does that resemble the hair they used to have.

Taxotere manufacturer Sanofi Aventis is accused of hiding the fact that no hair growth after chemo could be a medication side effect. The company’s own 2005 clinical study, GEICAM 9805, found that up to 9.2 percent of patients experienced hair loss that lasted ten years or longer.

In the September 2007 label for Taxotere in the United States, alopecia (hair loss) is on the list of the most common possible adverse side effects. The label does not mention the hair loss might be permanent, however.

In April 2010, Taxotere’s label in the U.S. was updated to say, “hair generally grows back.” That phrase allegedly does not appear in the 2011 version of the label, which just says side effects can include hair loss.

Taxotere Promoted as Superior Treatment

According to the Taxotere MDL, the FDA allegedly sent warning letters to Sanofi in 2002 because Taxotere promotional materials constituted “false or misleading promotion” that might “compromise patient survival and safety.” The FDA particularly noted that Taxotere’s claim to offer “significant survival advantages” was not supported by any clinical trials.

Even though Sanofi told the FDA it would no longer use those marketing materials or engage in similar promotions, the company allegedly continued to use misleading advertisements.

Despite Taxotere’s claims of supremacy, the August 2007 Cancer Treatment Reviews medical journal published a study that showed no significant differences in outcomes or effectiveness with Taxotere or Taxol (paclitaxel) as chemo treatments for breast cancer.

A 2008 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that Taxol actually was more effective than Taxotere when standard adjuvant chemo treatments were used, too.

The Hair Growth After Chemo Lawsuit is Case No. 2:18-cv-05602-JTM-MBN and is part of the Taxotere MDL, In re: Taxotere (docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2740, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.