Generally, anthracyclines and taxanes are applied to treat metastatic breast cancer (MBC) as chemotherapeutic agents. However, some patients are over-sensitive to taxanes, or experience rapid relapse due to resistance to taxanes, for whom, anthracyclines and taxanes have poor therapentic efficacy. Fortunately, ixabepilone, a novel microtubules inhibitor, exerts great effects on MBC patients who are resistant to anthracyclines and taxanes. In this article, we reviewed the pharmacology of ixabepilone and its progress in clinical research.