From their initial development, the taxanes have been a mainstay of anti-cancer therapy, and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. They lack the cardiotoxicity of the anthracyclines, and though neuropathy continues to limit their utility, novel taxanes now in clinical trial may significantly reduce this dose-limiting side effect. The Cremophor base, another source of concern, is increasingly optional with new taxanes. Production methods for all taxanes have largely eliminated the environmental controversies around the production of these highly potent drugs. Despite its controversial beginning, taxol and its analogs are a mainstay of anti-cancer therapy for a wide variety of solid-tumor cancers. Though the sourcing logistics for new chemotherapy agents haven't generated crises rivaling that of taxol's early history, the challenges of sourcing, and of developing adequate synthetic or semi-synthetic production processes, remains a serious hurdle to new drug development for compounds first isolated from the natural environment.

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