About the Side Effects of Taxel Chemotherapy

Video Transcript

"Hello I'm Dr. DavidCathcart, I'm a family practice physician from Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, and we're going to talk about chemotherapy drugs and their side effects today. Taxol or sometimes called Taxel, it's actually the same drug. It's used for treatment of breast cancer. And the side effects are suppressed white count, which is the cells that are used to fight infection in your bloodstream. There is also can be anemia, which is a suppressed red blood cell count, so that will make you tired. Or suppressed platelet count, platelets are used in the clotting mechanism. So if you have a too low of a platelet count, you can have some problems with excessive bleeding. Taxol can also caused some allergic like reactions, or and it can also damage nerves in your hands and in your feet causing a condition called neuropathy. So that tends to cause people to have a sensation of burning in their hands and feet, or pins and needles and that sort of thing. Taxol can also cause muscle aches and bone pain, it can cause sores in your mouth, again because as Taxol kills cells that are rapidly dividing it can cause sores inside the mouth through the vagina. It can also cause diarrhea. So Taxol or Taxel are essentially the same medication, is used for treating breast cancer. This is Dr. Cathcart talking to you about Taxol therapy."