Colorado and Denver Taxotere Lawsuit Lawyer

Have you undergone treatment for breast cancer involving the chemotherapy drug Taxotere and suffered permanent hair loss? If so, you may be one of the women harmed by Taxotere’s harmful side effects. You may be entitled to seek compensation from the manufacturer of Taxotere, as more than a thousand women already have. Drug manufacturers have a legal duty to warn adequately of known side effects and may be held accountable when they fail to do so. Call for a free consultation with a knowledgeable Colorado Taxotere injury lawyer at Wilhite Law Firm about your legal options for seeking compensation for your injuries.

Contact us today for a free and confidential consultation with a Taxotere injury attorney.

Why is Taxotere Used?

Taxotere, marketed by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, is the brand name of a prescription chemotherapy drug known generically as docetaxel. It is approved to treat different types of cancer including cancers of the breast, prostate, stomach, head and non-small cell lung cancer. It is given intravenously to try to stop cancer cells from growing and spreading.

The FDA in 1996 approved Taxotere (docetaxel) for treatment of breast cancer. It is used in treatment of women with operable early-stage breast cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes, to treat breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body after treatment with standard chemotherapy drugs.

Common Side Effect: Permanent Hair Loss

Temporary hair loss is a common effect of chemotherapy treatment. But the patient’s hair generally grows back in three to six months. Many women who have received Taxotere as part of chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer have experienced permanent hair loss without warning. For a number of years, the drug maker included warnings about permanent hair loss, also known as alopecia, on Taxotere sold in Canada and in Europe, but no such warning was included on the Taxotere marketed in the United States until recently.

If the patients had been warned of the risk of permanent baldness associated with Taxotere, they may have chosen to use other chemotherapy drugs such as Taxol, which is comparable in effectiveness and does not cause permanent hair loss. The failure by Sanofi-Aventis to warn adequately has caused hundreds of women to suffer permanent, disfiguring hair loss that could have been avoided.

Sanofi-Aventis updated Taxotere’s warning label in 2015 to warn that some patients treated with the medication could experience long-term hair loss. The product liability attorneys at The Wilhite Law Firm are currently pursuing legal action on behalf of women who took Taxotere during chemotherapy and experienced permanent hair loss.

Other common side effects of Taxotere include:

Scientific Studies Regarding Taxotere Hair Loss Side Effects

In research including a study sponsored by Sanofi, medical researchers have identified permanent hair loss as a Taxotere side effect.

A clinical trial sponsored by GEICAM and Sanofi-Aventis found about 9.2 percent of patients suffered alopecia lasting at least 10 years, according to data presented in a lawsuit filed by one breast cancer survivor.

A 2006 study by Dr. Scot Sedlacek of the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers in Colorado found that 6.3 percent of breast cancer patients experienced long-term hair loss after being administered Taxotere in combination with two other chemo drugs, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide.

A study published in 2011 in the American Journal of Dermatopathology discussed 10 cases of permanent hair loss after systematic chemotherapy with docetaxel for breast cancer or other chemotherapy drugs. A study published in 2012 in the Annals of Oncology reported on 20 women who developed permanent hair loss after being treated for breast cancer with a chemotherapy regimen that included docetaxel.

A study published in 2016 in the Journal of Clinical Case Reports reported that a review of medical research suggested there is a direct link between Taxotere and permanent alopecia with a reduction in the total number of hair follicles.

Despite published research, the drug manufacturer chose for many years not to warn breast cancer patients of the risk of permanent hair loss. Now, the manufacturer is facing many Taxotere hair loss lawsuits.

Who is Eligible to File a Lawsuit

If you were prescribed Taxotere as part of chemotherapy treatment and have been diagnosed with permanent hair loss, you may be entitled to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer of Taxotere. Women who suffer alopecia may feel emotional distress, a negative impact on self-image and decreased quality of life. Through a taxotere product liability lawsuit, you may have a right to hold the manufacturer liable for the harm, disfigurement and emotional trauma you have suffered.

Many women who are breast cancer survivors have filed lawsuits against Sanofi-Aventis, alleging that the pharmaceutical manufacturer failed to properly warn of the risks of using the chemotherapy drug.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed in federal court against Sanofi, the maker of Taxotere. The lawsuits contend that the patients may have chosen an alternate chemotherapy drug if they had been warned of the risk of permanent hair loss from using Taxotere.

The federal court has ordered all Taxotere lawsuits involving allegation of permanent alopecia to be consolidated in Louisiana district court to handle the pre-trial stages of the lawsuit most efficiently.

What Does a Taxotere Lawsuit Cost?

If we believe that you have a valid Taxotere lawsuit, the dangerous medicine attorneys at The Wilhite Law Firm will handle you case on a contingency fee basis. That means that you will not owe any legal fee unless we obtain compensation for you through a negotiated settlement or a jury award. We do not get paid unless you do! If we obtain compensation for you, our fee is a percentage of the amount of compensation that we recover. Our attorneys are currently investigating injuries involving Taxotere.

Contact The Wilhite Law Firm today for a free consultation with a Taxotere lawsuit attorney. Someone is always available to answer your questions and discuss your eligibility to file a Taxotere lawsuit.