title: New taxanes in development.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Taxanes are presently widely employed for the medical treatment of cancer. However, despite the huge clinical success, these agents exhibit clinical problems related to poor drug solubility, toxicity and, in particular, drug resistance.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify the critical points related to the process of development of novel taxanes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Publicly available data on the paclitaxel and docetaxel analogues, which have entered a clinical development phase in the last 2 years have been taken into consideration. The development involved novel formulations of paclitaxel and novel chemical entities. For each agent in each category the development phase is analysed and a synthetic comment for each category is included.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite all the efforts, until now clinical success with the new development of taxanes has been limited. Moreover, the expected clinical introduction of epothilones could further restrict the space for development of novel taxanes. Despite these facts, some interesting concepts emerged during the process of development and could lead to successful drugs in the forthcoming years.
authors.affiliation: Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Lgo A. Gemelli, 8-00168 Rome, Italy. cferlini@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: Cristiano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferlini
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gallo
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scambia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D043823:Taxoids / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D043823:Taxoids