Paclitaxel (PTX), sold under the brand name Taxol among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes ovarian cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, Kaposis sarcoma, cervical cancer, and pancreatic cancer. It is administered by intravenous injection. There is also an albumin-bound formulation.Common side effects include hair loss, bone marrow suppression, numbness, allergic reactions, muscle pains, and diarrhea. Other serious side effects include heart problems, increased risk of infection, and lung inflammation. There are concerns that use during pregnancy may cause birth defects. Paclitaxel is in the taxane family of medications. It works by interference with the normal function of microtubules during cell division.Paclitaxel was first isolated in 1971 from the Pacific yew and approved for medical use in 1993. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines. It has been made from precursors, and more recently through cell culture. Medical use
Paclitaxel is approved in the UK for ovarian, breast, lung, bladder, prostate, melanoma, esophageal, and other types of solid tumor cancers as well as Kaposis sarcoma.It is recommended in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance of June 2001 that it should be used for non-small-cell lung cancer in patients unsuitable for curative treatment, and in first-line and second-line treatment of ovarian cancer. In September 2001, NICE recommended paclitaxel should be available for the treatment of advanced breast cancer after the failure of anthracyclic chemotherapy, but that its first-line use should be limited to clinical trials.
Pegasys may refer to:

A brand name of the medication peginterferon alfa-2a
Pegasys, Inc., a Japanese software company that develops the TMPGEnc family of video encoding/editing programs
Pegasus (disambiguation)