New treatment for ovarian cancer poses ecology dilemma.
Taxol is a chemotherapeutic drug which has shown promising results in the treatment of ovarian cancer. The problem with Taxol is that it is produced from a resource that is being rapidly depleted. It is extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, a slow growing native of the Pacific north west. It takes an average of six, 100-year-old trees to treat each patient. This paper discusses the complex make up of this drug and the ethical dilemmas associated with its use.
Crumbie
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D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004463:Ecology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015205:Northwestern United States; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014197:Trees
D017239:Paclitaxel