Taxotere Doesn’t Discriminate contd.

 

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I took photos of my hair when it started to return because I was so excited. I remember the earlier photos and how I thought I looked like a dandelion, then it all stopped with this. Nothing has changed in five years...

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I have particularly wondered about people with OTHER cancers treated with Taxotere. Last week, I had my first experience with this.

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I met a man, a prostate cancer survivor, who was treated with Taxotere. He commended to me (totally unsolicited) that prior to his treatment with Taxotere he had a full head of beautiful silver hair.  Since his hair “grew back” after Taxotere, it is thin, brittle and dull.  Because he is a man, I think it is easy to overlook this as a potential side effect from Taxotere vs. a man aging. He is convinced it’s from the Taxotere and so am I, knowing what I now know.

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This man likely fits into that group of people treated with Taxotere who either don’t report this to their oncologist, or who are brushed off by their oncologists. We all know who we were and how our hair was before it all fell out and how it only sort of grew back—here and there or not at all. How can it possibly be anything else?

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We’re all around us, male and female, and as Taxotere is being used to treat a lot of different cancers, our numbers will continue to grow. Every time I see a woman (yes, it’s always a women because as a society we tend to accept bald men) whose hair is thinner than typical thinning that often comes with aging, I always wonder, “Did she have cancer and was she treated with Taxotere?”

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I would never have given a second thought about that man’s hair loss I’ve described above — and I should! Taxotere doesn’t discriminate, is not used solely in treating breast cancer, and as its use continues to become more prevalent, we should be warned of this potential PERMANENT side effect — all of us!

 

by Suzanne

 

 

  

 

#alopecia  #permanenthairloss  #prostatecancer  #sideeffectsofchemo #taxotere  #thinhair #oncologist