San Diego Taxotere Lawyer
Have you suffered permanent hair loss after chemotherapy? You may have a legal claim to compensation through a Taxotere lawsuit.
Fighting aggressive cancer with chemotherapy is difficult for anyone. But women must also deal with the added grief of losing their hair during this potentially life-saving procedure. In most cases, the regrowth of hair occurs completely naturally after chemotherapy has ended. However, many women who were treated with the chemotherapy drug known as Taxotere have experienced permanent hair loss. Because adequate warnings about the serious side effects of this drug were not provided, many of these women are pursuing legal action against the manufacturers of Taxotere. If you need a Taxotere lawyer, San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys experienced legal team are ready to assist.
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For a free consultation call our office: (619) 752-2217.
What is Taxotere?
According to the Mayo Clinic, Taxotere is a chemotherapy drug that is approved for the treatment of breast cancer and many other types of cancer. It may be used completely on its own or combined with a cocktail of other chemotherapy drugs. Both Taxotere and its competitor drug, Taxol, belong to the same family of drugs and are widely used as chemotherapy agents. Taxol was developed, manufactured and distributed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, and it was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December of 1992.
How does Taxotere compare to Taxol?
Taxotere was officially approved for the treatment of breast cancer in 2001, but it was already being used for this purpose as early as 1996. It was marketed as being twice as active and twice as powerful as Taxol, but this higher potency also means that Taxotere is more toxic.
Taxotere is designed to be given to patients every 21 days, and Taxol, an alternative, natural-source cancer drug, requires a weekly treatment. This resulted in Taxotere being marketed to physicians as a more convenient treatment regimen for their patients, and the American Cancer Society says that up to 75 percent of breast-cancer patients who have undergone chemotherapy have been prescribed Taxotere.
What are the side effects of Taxotere?
According to a research study from the prestigious University of Oxford, one of the most serious and devastating potential side effects, problems and risks of Taxotere is alopecia, which is commonly known as the permanent loss of hair. The Mayo Clinic reports that any hair loss during most forms of chemotherapy can be expected to grow back in three to six months, and this includes hair on your scalp, eyebrows and other areas.
In some cases, you may only experience the thinning of your hair, but full baldness may occur as well. The actual rate of regrowth will vary based on the individual and the treatment, but this is what you should be able to expect in terms of hair growth following the end of chemotherapy:
- Soft, new fuzz begins to form after no more than two to three weeks.
- Your real hair begins to grow at its normal rate after one month.
- You’ll have at least an inch of new hair growth after two months.
- The hair your scalp will often appear before your eyebrows or eyelashes begin to grow back simply because the hair on your head is capable of growing at a much faster rate.
- You may be surprised by hair that grows in with a completely different shade or texture, but this is usually temporary and goes back to normal in a short time.
Unfortunately, many of those who were given Taxotere during their chemotherapy did not see this common hair regrowth. The incidence of complete and permanent hair loss became so great that the FDA updated the warning label for Taxotere to include the risk of permanent hair loss associated with the drug in December of 2015. This warning came far too late for many people.
What is the Taxotere Lawsuit?
The litigation against the manufacturers of Taxotere, Sanofi-Aventis, centers on the company’s failure to warn patients, particularly female breast-cancer patients, of the high risk of permanent hair loss that is associated with the use of this drug. The claim is that if the manufacturer had properly warned the public of this potential risk, then patients would have been better educated and could have been prescribed an alternative chemotherapy drug such as Taxol, which has actually been proven to be more effective than Taxotere and does not result in permanent hair loss.
Many women who suffered from the loss of hair that did not grow back after they took Taxotere have understandably taken issue with what they believe were severely inadequate warnings about the potential side effects of this drug. Claimants say that they weren’t fully informed of the associated risks of this drug or offered any alternative treatments to consider in their chemotherapy.
Contact Us Today to Pursue Your Claim
If you or someone who you love has experienced either permanent hair loss or baldness after chemotherapy for the treatment of breast cancer that included the drug Taxotere, then you may be entitled to compensation. You may have a legal claim if you received intravenous chemotherapy treatment with this drug.
Here at San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys, we understand that the permanent loss of your hair is not something to be taken lightly. It can cause a dramatic decrease in your quality of life, destroy your self-esteem and lead to severe depression and anxiety. We don’t want you to go through this difficult time alone, and our attorneys will aggressively seek the compensation that you deserve.
If you think that you have a case, then please don’t hesitate to contact us today because the law limits the time that you have to pursue a claim or file a lawsuit for an injury. As soon as we hear from you, we’ll assign an experienced Taxotere attorney to your case. We will follow up with you right away to speak with you about your case and answer any questions or concerns that you may have. You can be assured that there is no cost or obligation to speak with us, and any information that you provide will be kept strictly confidential.
Our San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys ensures that your legal rights are fully protected according to the law. Our attorneys are available 24/7. For a free consultation call our office: (619) 752-2217.
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