The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about the widely used chemotherapy drug docetaxel, revising the label to let patients and health care professionals know that the drug can make patients feel drunk or intoxicated.
Docetaxel is a drug commonly prescribed against a variety of cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, stomach cancer and head and neck cancer.
The reason this can occur is because docetaxel contains ethanol, or alcohol, which is added to the drug in order to dissolve the active ingredients so that the drug can be administered intravenously.
Since docetaxel is off patent, it is available as a generic and is also sold as Taxotere and Docefrez.
The FDA is advising patients to avoid or minimize alcoholic intake while prescribed docetaxel.
They are also concerned that patients should not drive, operate heavy machinery, or do other things that they wouldn't ordinarily do when drinking alcohol for between one and two hours following drug infusion. Furthermore, some medications, including sleep aids and pain medications, might cause dangerous interactions.
Source: FDA
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