We looked up the drug info for all the chemo drugs on the web and found the taxanes can cause peripheral neuropathy, as does cisplatin. My husband's medical oncologist was concerned about his essential tremor being made worse -- as was my husband, as it interfers quite a bit with his ornithological work (holding binoculars) and he has to take Primadone daily to control it. Barry asked her bluntly, "if I do not take the Taxol, what will be the difference in effectiveness of the treatment?" That is, "give me the info on which I can make an informed decision -- if the increased risk is small, I won't take it, if large, I guess I will." His MO (who is one of the top in the field) essentially said -- "there are no good studies that show a consistent, significant improvement with use of Taxol in conjunction with platinoid chemo plus radiation, although there are some which show it adds to control when the chemotherapy is combined with surgery (no radiation). But in my book, you don't have to take it..." So he didn't. His response to chemoradiation was as good as could be expected, according to his doctors, so the lack of the taxane did not compromise his treatment. He has no increase in the essential tremor, either.

Btw, his daughter also has it...

Gail