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Review
. 2014 May;25(5):482-7.
doi: 10.1097/CAD.0000000000000063.

Nature as a remarkable chemist: a personal story of the discovery and development of Taxol

Mansukh C Wani  1 , Susan Band Horwitz
Affiliations
Review

Nature as a remarkable chemist: a personal story of the discovery and development of Taxol

Mansukh C Wani et al. Anticancer Drugs. 2014 May.

Abstract

The development of a new anticancer drug with a novel structure and unique mechanism of action is an important event, especially when the drug plays a clear role in improving the outcome for cancer patients. No drug fits this description better than Taxol. However, during the early phases of its development, there was little interest in the drug, particularly in the medical community. The story of Taxol is long and fascinating, and includes many examples in which the drug could have been dropped, resulting in its antitumor activity never being available to patients. It was 21 years between the original landmark paper on the isolation and structural determination of Taxol and its approval in 1992 by the FDA for its use in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structures of Taxol®, Taxotere® and Cabazitaxel.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Structures of Related Taxanes and Taxol (1) Ester Side-Chain
Figure 3
Figure 3
The effect of Taxol® on the microtubule cytoskeleton (green) in A549 cells
Chart 1
Chart 1
*5WM is a solid tumor known as Walker-256 intramuscular rat carcinosarcoma. **T/C = mean tumor weight of treated animal ÷ mean tumor weight of control animals x 100
Chart 2
Chart 2
*T/C in 5 WM. For definitions of 5WM and T/C see footnotes of Chart 1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Loike JD, Horwitz SB. Effect of VP-16-213 on the intracellular degradation of DNA in HeLa cells. Biochemistry. 1976;15(25):5443–8. - PubMed

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