Kathleen wrote << Now, I may have read this piece out of context,but is it
saying that these
taxanes can be taken as a precautionary measure by someone who had not had a
recurrence yet,or are they taken by those with more advanced cancers ?

Yes, many are given a taxane as standard adjuvent and now even neoadjuvent
treatment for early stage b.c. with positive nodes.
I had AC, 5 weeks of rads, then 2 Taxol and 2 Taxotere along with weekly
Herceptin for a year.  My intitial dx was stage IIb but because I had an
inflammatory component it was changed to stage III.

This statement is probably true of (adjuvant) chemotherapy in general: the
greatest benefit accrues to the patients at the highest risk of recurrence,
and to those for whom other treatments are not available, so node+ and ER-
has the most to gain

Taxanes were when first introduced restricted to stage IV patients, who have
less to lose when taking a treatment whose side effects and
contra-indications are not well known.  They are now becoming established
and accepted as suitable for use in earlier stages, and trials are
suggesting that they offer a benefit over previous chemotherapies.  From
what I have read the current gold standard for 'heavy' chemo, for women at
high risk, is I think a sequence of two different cocktails one of which
contains a taxane.

Tim Jackson