Abraxane Vs Taxol

In the treatment of breast cancer, two chemotherapeutic drugs are way beyond the rest. These drugs are Abraxane and Taxol. However, the most recent studies now show that one appears to be superior than the other. Which one is it?

Abraxane is a paclitaxel bound to an albumin agent while Taxol is just paclitaxel. This special binding to albumin may have made Abraxane a superior drug compared to Taxol. The albumin sort of covers the paclitaxel containing the taxane. It’s natural transporting nature and sheer size make albumin a good partner to most drug chemicals. Thus Abraxane is said to deliver the drug more effectively than Taxol. By nature, most normal cells are tightly joined while cancer cells are a lot looser. The bigger size of the albumin particle is able to ender the loosely joined cancer cells much easier while it will have a harder time penetrating the normal ones. This is obviously a good thing for cancer therapy.

Another difference between the two is Taxol requires a certain pre drug namely an antihistamine and a steroid medication. On the other hand, this is not the case for Abraxane in the sense that there’s no premedication ordered. It is a more easily tolerated medication. Because of such, the use of Abraxane spares the patients from all the unwanted side effects of using Taxol + the steroids like insomnia, changes in blood sugar levels, and muscle and joint pain among others. This makes Abraxane a less toxic drug than Taxol.

Based on recent clinical trials, it has been noted that Abraxane is the best choice in almost all aspects of study. Firstly, it has a greater average survival time (in terms of months) compared to Taxol. The former received a mark of about 65 months while the latter only reached 55.7 months. In addition, Abraxane has a greater median time to progression (6.1 months greater than Taxol’s 16.9 months). This means that the cancer of patients who use Abraxane tends to spread slower compared to those who use Taxol. The complete response rate almost doubled in using Abraxane at 33% compared to the 27% of Taxol. The possibility of neutropenia is also lessened in the use of Abraxane.

Because of this list of advantages, it is not surprising for Abraxane to be priced very highly compared to Taxol. In fact, many say that Abraxane is painfully priced like making several orders of Taxol all at once. Taxol is cheaper because there are many popular generic preparations for such.

1. Abraxane has drug components that are bound to albumin unlike Taxol.

2. Abraxane is a more expensive drug compared to Taxol.

3. Abraxane is a superior chemo drug than Taxol in the following aspects:

o Greater average survival time

o Greater median time to disease progression

o Greater overall response rate for the majority of patients

o Lesser cases of Grade 4 neutropenia

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