Abraxane
Meaning of Abraxane: Abraxane is a brand name chemotherapy drug that delivers paclitaxel bound to albumin nanoparticles to treat several types of cancer.
Definition of Abraxane
Abraxane is a brand name for a chemotherapy medication in which paclitaxel, a drug that interferes with cell division, is bound to particles of albumin, a natural blood protein, forming a nanoparticle formulation. This albumin bound formulation is designed to deliver paclitaxel without the solvent used in older paclitaxel formulations, which can cause its own separate side effects.
Abraxane belongs to a class of chemotherapy drugs called mitotic inhibitors, which work by disrupting the internal structures a cell needs to divide, ultimately preventing rapidly dividing cancer cells from multiplying further.
Abraxane is used to treat several types of cancer, including certain breast, lung, and pancreatic cancers, and the specific cancers and treatment situations for which it is used continue to be defined through ongoing clinical research.
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Used in a sentence
Abraxane was included in the patient's chemotherapy regimen for metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Good to know
Abraxane's albumin bound formulation was developed specifically to avoid the solvent required by older paclitaxel formulations, a distinction relevant to its side effect profile compared with standard paclitaxel.