A woman has filed a lawsuit alleging she’s suffering permanent hair loss from Taxotere, a chemotherapy treatment she underwent nearly two years ago.

Plaintiff Geri C. says she received Taxotere from February 2017 through May 2018 in Arizona. She alleges she lost all of her hair during treatment, and at about six months post-treatment, some of her hair began to grow back.

However, she says she “has bald areas on both sides of her scalp and her hair is thinner and a different texture.”

She also says the hair on her arms and legs has yet to return.

Permanent Hair Loss from Taxotere Allegedly Hidden

Taxotere (docetaxel) is a drug used to fight cancer, including breast cancer, and is part of a drug category known as taxanes, made from the bark of yew trees.

Taxotere by Sanofi-Aventis is a synthetic taxane, which is more toxic than Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Taxol. Patients allege that Sanofi-Aventis falsely claimed that Taxotere was more effective than any other taxane-based chemotherapy drug. These claims of superiority were based on the fact that Taxotere was more poisonous. In fact, when the Taxotere was originally approved by the FDA in 1996, the chemo drug was only recommended for treatment for patients who had undergone therapy with at least one previously failed chemotherapy drug.

A 2013 study in the U.K. found that up to 15 percent of women who undergo chemotherapy treatments with Taxotere report permanent hair loss.

Taxotere manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis allegedly added a warning to Taxotere’s packaging in the European Union and Canada back in 2005 that hair loss might be irreversible. No such warning appeared on U.S. packaging until ten years later. Instead of warning that permanent hair loss from Taxotere was a possibility, the U.S. labeling continued to say that patients’ hair “generally grows back.”

Many women chose Taxotere because it was a stronger medication, which they were led to believe gave them better chances at surviving cancer. They say they didn’t know they were risking permanent hair loss or that perhaps a less toxic drug might have been just as effective against their disease.

According to the Taxotere lawsuit, permanent alopecia (hair loss) can be emotionally devastating to a woman who survives breast cancer because she still looks ill. Some women find that the hair on their head grows back in peach fuzz tufts, if at all. Women often report loss of body hair, eyelashes and eyebrows, too.

Even though patients are aware that oftentimes hair loss is a side effect of chemotherapy, they also expect the hair loss to be temporary. The emotional toll of permanently appearing ill is difficult to overcome for many women.

A November 2015 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology published an article regarding a Taxotere study that said in part, “Patients who received [docetaxel] not only had to wear a wig for a longer period of time but also reported a significantly higher proportion of long-term incomplete scalp hair recovery and permanent wig use after therapy.”

The Permanent Hair Loss from Taxotere Lawsuit is Case No. 2:19-cv-00117-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.