Taxol and cancer metastasis

[momanderson920]

I have read recent articles stating that Taxol, though very effective in cancer cell death, is also more responsible for cancer metastasis than many other chemo drugs.  It is the gold standard along with Carboplatinum for ovarian cancer and what I am currently taking for Stage III3C ovarian cancer.  Is this true?  And if so, should I switch to another chemo drug?  My CA125 has come down from 871 to 46 with only 2 treatments (I have just had my third treatment) but the remaining cancer was in my periaortic lymph nodes which were inoperable due to very vascular location.  I am very scared now after reading these studies which were pretty convincing.

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  It might be helpful if you can give us the titles and authors of the articles you read (internet links would be better), so we can also review them.  At this point, I cannot comment on the veracity of these reports as I have not reviewed the kind of evidence from which the report is being based (is the evidence merely anecdotal, or based on clinical trial data?).  If your CA 125 levels are going down after two chemotherapy sessions, this probably indicates that your tumor is responding to the treatment, so I don't see any reason why you should switch to another regimen.  As you yourself have stated (and to which I concur), the regimen of Taxol with Carboplatin is a standard treatment for advanced stage ovarian cancer, and has become "standard" because of the preponderance of scientific evidence pointing to its treatment efficacy.  I don't think Taxol will continue to be widely used for ovarian cancer if it actually promotes cancer metastases.  I have searched the scientific literature about this and have not found anything.  That is why I'm asking you for the sources of this information so it can be reviewed.