If you currently have cancer or you’re a cancer survivor, you most likely have taken Taxotere. The latter is part of the chemotherapy drug combination doctors use to treat different tumors, especially in the breast.
Cancer specialists also use it in chemo against other growths such as stomach cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, etc. Chemotherapy is a prevalent treatment that destroys tumor cells using anti-cancer drugs.
Taxotere (a docetaxel brand name) is a product of Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC and some other companies. Medical practitioners have used it in the treatment of cancer since the 90s. The drug is popular primarily due to its effectiveness.
Despite this, it would help to be sufficiently informed of and wary of the drug. Your wariness should be because of its known side effects, both temporary and permanent ones. If you’re already using Taxotere in your chemotherapy treatment, it will be best to talk to a lawyer.
Common Side Effects of Taxotere
Many cancer patients have healthy tolerance levels for Taxotere. However, they’ll still experience some significant side effects. Taxotere is a strong chemotherapy medication, so it has more severe aftereffects than other drugs. And its list of side effects is rather long.
Taxotere’s manufacturers advertised some of these aftereffects on the drug label. Also, before you start chemotherapy, your doctor is expected to hold a conference with you to explain the possible side effects of the process.
You may begin to experience these side effects immediately you take the drug or after some days. Cancer patients whose doctors treated with Taxotere may experience aftereffects such as:
- Diarrhea
- Nausea and vomiting
- Constipation
- Numbness
- Body weakness
- Muscle and joint pains
- Loss of appetite
- Blood disorders
- Low white blood cells count
- Fluid retention
Why Should You Stay Away From Taxotere?
Most of the symptoms above are temporary and treatable. It is not these signs that are the main subject of Taxotere lawsuits around the country. Instead, many patients have blamed the drug for a more severe side effect: permanent alopecia (hair loss). The potential of the drug to cause baldness is why you should be wary of Taxotere.
After treatment with the medication, patients generally lose their hair. It’s even a common sight to see cancer patients bald. Usually, their hair grows back after a few months. But for many patients treated with Taxotere, their hair didn’t grow back after several months and years. There are studies to support this claim too.
Although baldness isn’t life-threatening, it still bothers male and female cancer patients. This worry is primarily because hair loss drastically affects a patient’s physical appearance.
It then has a direct negative impact on the patient’s self-image and esteem. Furthermore, baldness implies that a person isn’t healthy even after surviving cancer. Having to deal with it for life is very challenging.
Taxotere’s potential for hair loss doesn’t affect only the hair on the head. You could also lose hair on other parts of your body such as your eyelids, eyebrows, armpits, pubic area, beards, and other facial hair.
If you sue Taxotere manufacturers, you may get compensation for any medical bills you’ve paid in treating your hair loss. Plaintiffs around the country claim that although the company notified the public of Taxotere’s side effects, it wasn’t full disclosure.
The company failed to disclose that it may cause users permanent hair loss. If patients had been aware of this effect, they might have chosen a less drastic option. But the manufacturers denied them this opportunity with their faulty marketing.
Has Taxotere Been Recalled?
With the side effects of Taxotere, you may want to know if the authorities have recalled it. The U.S. FDA has not pulled the drug from the market. However, that Taxotere is still legally circulating doesn’t affect your lawsuit against the manufacturer.
This is because the claim is that Sanofi didn’t fully inform users of the side effects of their drug. The withholding of information is the basis of your lawsuit and not whether Taxotere is a good or bad drug.
Let Rueb Stoller Daniel Help You!
If you or your loved one used this drug and it caused you permanent hair loss, you may have a lawsuit against the manufacturers. The withholding of vital information on this particular side effect by the company makes your case better.
To proceed against a company as large as Sanofi successfully is practically impossible. Therefore, it’ll be best to let a lawyer that has experience in personal injury lawsuits represent you.
At Rueb Stoller Daniel, our lawyers have experience getting compensation for victims of defective products and manufacturer misinformation. If you engage our services, we can recover damages for you too. Call us for a FREE consultation on your case.
