Paclitaxel / Taxol Raw Powder Effective Anti-Cancer Drug Oncology Drug

How you have paclitaxel

You usually have paclitaxel as an injection into a vein. It can cause an allergic reaction. To try to prevent this, you have a steroid injection and tablets before the paclitaxel drip. You also have an antihistamine (such as chlorphenamine) into a vein about an hour before your treatment. You will also have a medicine to prevent heartburn, such as ranitidine or cimetidine. Abraxane does not usually cause an allergic reaction so you don't need the anti allergy drugs with abraxane.

You can have paclitaxel through a thin, short tube (a cannula) put into a vein in your arm each time you have treatment. Or you may have it through a central line, a portacath or a PICC line. These are long, plastic tubes that give the drugs directly into a large vein in your chest. You have the tube put in just before your course of treatment starts and it stays in place as long as you need it.

You usually have chemotherapy as a course of several cycles of treatment. The treatment plan for paclitaxel depends on which cancer you have. You can find out about how doctors plan chemotherapy in the chemotherapy section.

Paclitaxel side effects are listed below. You can use the underlined links to find out more about each side effect. Where there is no link, use the search box at the top of the page or go to our cancer drugs side effects section.