Antineoplastic Drug
Docetaxel (as generic or under the trade name Taxotere) is a clinically well-established anti-mitotic chemotherapy medication (that is, it interferes with cell division). It is used mainly for the treatment of breast, ovarian, prostate, and non-small cell lung cancer. Docetaxel has an FDA approved claim for treatment of patients who have locally advanced, or metastatic breast or non small-cell lung cancer who have undergone anthracycline-based chemotherapy and failed to stop cancer progression or relapsed and a European approval for use in hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

According to a 2005 article in the journal Drugs, docetaxel administered as a one-hour infusion every three weeks generally over a ten cycle course, docetaxel is considered as or more effective than doxorubicin, paclitaxel and fluorouracil as a cytotoxic antimicrotubule agent. However the effectiveness of Docetaxel vs. Paclitaxel and other taxenes is still controversial. Several more recent articles have found "no evidence that regimens containing docetaxel yield greater benefits than those including paclitaxel." Additionally, the optimal scheduling of docetaxel and other taxenes remains unconfirmed. A three-week administration schedule used to be and is still considered effective but new studies are indicating a weekly schedule might be better. A 2010 article in Current Clinical Pharmacology states, "weekly administration has emerged as the optimal schedule." Docetaxel is marketed worldwide under the name Taxotere by Sanofi-Aventis. Annual sales in 2010 were Euro 2.122 billion ($US 3.1 billion). The patent expired in 2010.

Docetaxel is a chemotherapeutic agent and is a cytotoxic compound and so is effectively a biologically damaging drug. As with all chemotherapy, adverse effects are common and many varying side-effects have been documented. Because docetaxel is a cell cycle specific agent, it is cytotoxic to all dividing cells in the body. This includes tumour cells as well as hair follicles, bone marrow and other germ cells. For this reason, common chemotherapy side effects such as alopecia occur; sometimes this can be permanent. However, the drugs company Sanofi Aventis claim they do not routinely keep this data.North westFranceare conducting a survey to establish exactly how many patients are being disfigured in this way. Independent studies show it could be as high as 6.3% which puts this ASE in the 'common and frequent' classification