Drug Ok’d For Advanced Breast Cancer Derived From European Yew Tree, Drug May Be Last Hope

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a drug for women with advanced breast cancer and for whom hope for long-term survival has been slim.

The sanction of Taxotere comes 5-1/2 years after studies began, in what is considered a speedy approval propelled by the appeals of dying women who call Taxotere their final hope.

“This represents a major step in the management of women with advanced breast cancer,” said Dr. Vicente Valero of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Taxotere is derived from the new growth of the European yew tree and is a chemical cousin of the drug Taxol, derived from the bark and needles of the Pacific yew.

While the drugs possess similar names and similar origins there is an appreciable nuance of difference in their effects on cancer, researchers say.

Taxotere appears to work most effectively against advanced breast cancer. Taxol, also used in the treatment of breast cancer, appears to work most effectively against advanced ovarian tumors.

Nevertheless, researchers have found several anti-cancer uses for Taxol and the word among cancer specialists is that additional uses for Taxotere are likely.

“This is not a magic bullet, but it adds to our armamentarium,” said Dr. Rebecca Moroose, an Orlando, Fla. oncologist who specializes in the treatment of breast cancer.

“Like Taxol this will add to our selection of drugs that can combat the disease, and it may be more potent than Taxol,” Moroose said, “especially for patients who have had multiple therapies in the past and failed.”

Taxotere helps extend lives by interfering with a process most students learn in 8th-grade biology: mitosis. By preventing a step in cell division, the drug prevents replication of cancer cells, which multiply much faster than healthy ones.

When cancer-cell growth is slowed, life, theoretically, can be extended.

In U.S. studies of Taxotere, median survival - meaning half the patients lived longer and half lived a shorter period - was 10 months.

Almost half the study’s participants had cancer that spread to at least three organs. Forty-three percent were alive one year after therapy began.

Taxotere has been studied in the United States and abroad. Tests in American women began in mid-1990.

Valero, principal investigator of U.S. studies, said the medication was not risk-free. Many women experience at least some immune system suppression while others can suffer liver dysfunction.

Manufactured by Rhone-Poulenc Rorer of Paris, Taxotere is chemically known as docetaxel and is administered intravenously.

“Women have to go to their cancer center or to see their oncologist,” Valero said. “It is given over one hour every three weeks.”