Cancer Project Draft Week 4 Draft 4

Docetaxel is known as a antimicrotubule agent. This means that it inhibits the formation of microtubules.  Microtubules are already unstable, and they are known to contain a plus and minus end, beta and alpha respectively. Tubulin assembly can happen at either end but is most favorable at the plus end when outside the cell and depolymerization happens on the minus end when outside the cell. Microtubules are highly involved in replicating and pulling apart chromosomes and sister chromatids throughout various stages of the cell cycle. Inhibition of the formation of microtubules will collapse and will result in cell death.