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Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN)—nerve pain, tingling, or numbness in the hands or feet—is a common side effect of certain cancer treatments, including two drugs frequently used to treat cancer—the taxanes paclitaxel and docetaxel. Initial results from a large study that tracked CIPN in more than 1,100 patients treated for breast cancer with a taxane show a pattern of clinically meaningful, persistent sensory and motor symptoms, with patients experiencing more severe symptoms with paclitaxel than with docetaxel. Michael J. Fisch, MD, said "These results are highly relevant because taxanes such as paclitaxel and docetaxel are integral to our treatment of breast...

[H/T Jane Long]Funny story.A month ago The New Yorker wrote a long piece on Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the Los Angeles Times and is the richest man in Los Angeles.Dr. Soon-Shiong made his billions thanks to a chemotherapy drug called Abraxane, which is a repatented and dressed-up version of a nasty and somewhat effective drug called paclitaxel. Abraxane came out in 2005 and was among the first cancer drugs to cost a few thousand dollars a month - a price that seems almost quaint now, when some cost 10 times that much. (Because pharmaceutical companies are all about helping...

Last year, members of the Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer based at Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology demonstrated that acid-sensitive polymer nanoparticles could boost the delivery of anticancer drugs into the acidic interior of tumors. Now, that same group of investigators has shown that these nanoparticles are effective at suppressing tumor growth when tested in an animal model of human ovarian cancer. In addition, animals treated with this nanoparticle formulation do not appear to experience adverse side effects that often limit the ability of patients to tolerate chemotherapy. The researchers reported the results of their preclinical work...