Taxol chemotherapy drug. Skeletal formula of the chemotherapy drug Taxol (generic name paclitaxel). Taxol was first isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia), but is now made synthetically. The drug acts by stabilising microtubules, part of the cell cytoskeleton involved in cell division. The microtubules become unable to disassemble and so cannot move chromosomes around the cell. Taxol is used to treat ovarian, breast, pancreatic and non-small cell lung cancer.