Anyone taking Xeloda

I had stage 3 rectal. Had chemo/rad, then surgery, then more chemo. Feb 14th ct/pet showed no cancer. I have been on Xeloda since April 2weeks on 1 week off. No real problems with it other than I think it has made my hand/foot neuropathy worse. It is really new treatment to prevent recurrence for rectal. They can't even give me % of success because it is so new. But...I must live strong and fight it in any way possible. Good luck, Pam

My 68 years old mother took Xeloda - 2 pills in the morning and 2 at night. I am my mother's conservator and so make all decisions for her.

After 1st round (round means 2 weeks) her liver functions were elevated, and she had to stop and wait. CT scan showed a couple millimeters nodules in her liver and lungs which were there before the surgery and appeared to be stable and per oncologist are not concern.
When liver functions normalized, she went on 2nd round and after it liver functions went up again. I was very concerned about her liver. It seemed to me that if this drug would cause liver failure, it is not worth it. They told me that this drug has the side effect of affecting liver. So, I thought about stopping the drug.

And then turned out that she has got severe pneumonia. Per doctor - chemotherapy causes the immune system to fail which caused pneumonia. It was so severe that she almost died from it. She has recovered now from pneumonia. There was also renal failure because of low blood pressure at the beginning of pneumonia. It could also be from chemotherapy.

After this there was no more Xeloda for my mother.

Many people on this board took Xeloda with no or minimal side effects. But my mother almost died from pneumonia caused by weakening of immune system by Xeloda. She did not take any other drug as chemotherapy.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

God Bless,
Eleonora

Hi -

I was diagosed with Stage IV CRC (liver met) in late May 2005. I had colon surgery in June, but then started chemo in late July with Xeloda / oxaliplatin / Avastin.

In terms of Xeloda, I started with 2000mg twice a day (i.e. 4 tabs in the AM and another 4 in the PM.) I took it two weeks on and one week off.

The primary side effect was intermittent diarrhea (a common 5FU side effect - and Xeloda is metabolized into 5FU). After 3 cycles I developed some minor foot skin peeling - nothing compared to the classic "hand-foot" syndrome, but enough to worry my oncologist. She thus reduced my dose to 1500mg twice a day (3000mg instead of 4000mg). In addition to resolving the skin problem (which was not yet a real problem for me), the diarhhea issue was hugely helped.)

So, that is my Xeloda experience. It was certainly a "convenient" form of chemo. I only had 6 cycles (2 weeks on Xeloda, 1 week off). I have been No Evidence of Disease since late August 2005.

Good luck and take care,
Betsy

vinny3 said:

I am not on Xeloda but am on 5-FU and was once before. According to the National Cancer Institute website (www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/results/capecitabine0705) the side effects of diarrhea, nausea, mouth sores, and low blood count were significantly less than 5-FU. But there were significantly more severe occurrences of hand-foot syndrome and elevated bilirubin. My onc has suggested I take 100 mcg of vit B6 three time a day to try to lessen the problem of hand-foot syndrome with 5-FU so perhaps the same would help with Xeloda.

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Vinny, Hi, I'm Don. I was on Xeloda for about 2 years, although not consecutively. I got to go off for a few months when they removed my kidney. I was taking 2800 mg a day to start then it was reduced to 2500 mg when I got nauseated and threw up at work. After dosage was reduced I never threw up and was able to continue working. Three and one-half years into cancer and I've never quit work. My hands got so sore that I could not open the pull-tab on Sprite. Opening a door was difficult. It was all I could do to start my car as my keys would hurt my hands when I tried to twist them to activate the starter. I eventually put a screwdriver thru my key ring and twisted the screwdriver because a large object like a screwdriver handle was less irritating to my hands than the small key ring. My feet also hurt a lot. I walked with a limp because they were so tender. I never lost my hair but did experience frequent nose-bleeds. Other than that I made it pretty good.

But every person is different. I've talked to other Xeloda users who didn't have much hand reaction. Others had more foot reaction than I did. I did however lose most of the skin on my hands and feet, peeled like an onion. But don't let that scare you. It's just like a sunburn. In other words, there was new skin underneath the peeled skin. So it sounds more gross than it is in reality. Then I got clear blisters inside both big toes. Nowhere else, just inside the big toes, funny huh? Then the toe-nail on each foot loosened. I cut them off (toe nails) because that was easier than them being so loose. Then all my cancers went away and I healed up pretty good, toe nails grew back, but hands still about 35 percent numb after being off for year and a half. Compared to other drugs it's not a bad ride, all things considered. Good luck to you my friend. I'll pray for you. God Bless.