Third Recurrence and concerns about Taxotere

I finished Taxotere 18 months ago and my hair has returned exactly as it was before -- very thick & fast-growing. My onc also told me she'd never seen permanent hair loss from Taxotere and she's a breast onc at a major cancer center. Just my experience!

I had Taxotere, TCH X6, hair came back and fast growing as before.  My onc said is 15 years of practice only one patient did not have hair return.

I had taxotere and I do have to say that, although my hair looks ok to the public, it definitely did not come back as it was prior to chemo.  It is much thinner than it ever was; HOWEVER, I do have to add that I was 62 when I went through treatment and my 88 year old mom did have some thinning to her hair beginning in her 60's so this is possibly something that would have happened to me with or without BC - I'll never know.  I keep it short (see avatar), but it definitely is thinner in the crown area and the top of my hair.  Just takes me so much longer to style because of the thinner areas as I never did have the type of hair that I could just wash, blow out and go.  Always have to tease it now in certain areas to appear fuller.  Since I did have taxotere, I always wonder if it was because of the drug, but could just be genetics in my case. 

Want to wish you all the best, and I am so sorry that you have to go through even more to kick this beast to the curb.  I hate this disease with a passion.  God bless,

Linda

I had taxotere in 2008 and four years later hair still hasn't grown back on crown or in front (bang area) - in fact for three years I had very little hair growth - things are a trifle better now - seems like it takes around three years for some of us to recover from the rads, chemo whatever - my stamina is back, my nails are finally growing like crazy and my skin feels better (not so dry and fragile) just wish researchers could come up with treatments that aren't so devastating.....

I did chemo for ALL and MDS over the years, loosing hair at least partially 5 times over the course of 24 years. The Taxotere caused every hair to fall out. It has come back thick, gray, and curly after having been gray and straight for many years. I still only have a few stray eyebrows though and am 6 months out from the last treatment. 

My onc has also advised TC. I had heard about the possibility of permanent hair loss and researched online. Via a series of links which I have posted in another thread, I found information provided by the manufacturer of Taxotere to Health Canada. Breast cancer clinical trial results included in this information say that 22 of the 687 patients treated with a combination regimen including taxotere experienced persistent hair loss. That is about 3%. I have also seen the 6% figure online but don't remember where and never did find the source. I don't know whether other chemo drugs have also been known to cause baldness. I looked up the 3 drugs for another frequently-used regimen in the same Health Canada database, and none of those brochures said anything about permanent hair loss.

I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do other than I will ask the Dr F what other chemo options I have, and if necessary request a 2nd opinion from another onc.