Xeloda

I have been battling bone mets for quite sometime..my cancer has not spread to any of my organs..yet. After I had been through the usual protocol(chemo...etc..then Zometa and Faslodex for a while)..my cancer levels have increased ..and my recent bone scans show that my mets have increased since my first, initial first bone scan 3 years ago.....my oncologist just prescribed Xeloda..I have to take 7 pills daily, each is 500mg. ( ugh, getting sicker just thinking about it) Has anyone here experienced this situation...and what was the outcome? I did a search on this drug..so I know what to expect.....just curious if someone can tell me how this treatment effected them, instead of relying on statistics. Thank you ever so much in advance. Sunny

My wife just completed her third two week on/one week off cycle. She takes 3 500 mg twice a day.
The only side effect she`s had (and I`m attributing this to a secondary side effect of Xeloda) is bad coughing fits. See my post earlier under "Xeloda and coughing fits" posted 06/10/03.
Other than that, she has had zero Xeloda attributable effects. No hand/foot syndrome - no direct diarrhea. She did have loose stools but I`m assuming that`s from finally unloading (!) after being bound up for two weeks.
She`s got an onco appt. Wed. and we`ll see if more scans will be ordered or perhaps other blood work to compare against the initial reports prior to Xeloda.

Thanks, Steve, for you information. What has me nervous is that my dosage is 3500 mg a day. I`ll be having a tough time digesting these...but I`ll never know until I try. thanks, again. Sunny

I took Xeloda for about 6 months last year. It seemed to be the only thing that made my tumor marker go down. The only side effect I had was the hand/foot thing. I quit taking the pills each month when I couldn`t walk anymore. I thought it was a small price to pay for an effective drug. Hope this helps.

Hi Sunny , I was taking 8x500mgs per day for about 5 months . They were working really well , and holding my levels right down. Unfortunately I had `hand and foot` syndrome quite badly , so the onc reduced my doseage to 6x500mgs. After a short time , my levels had gone way up again ...... so he had to think about `plan B` .... which is Tamoxifen . This seems to be working initially , but I`ll know in 2 weeks what the levels are doing after 3 months on them . I wouldn`t be `scared` of Xeloda tablets ... I was quite happy to be on them at first ... tablets are sooooooooooo preferable to chemo !!! Its a shame about the side effects ... but everyone is different , so you might not even get them , and its definitely worth a try ... just keep your onc informed , and if the worst comes to the worst , you can always come off them !
Keep smiling, Luv Mazza xxx

I took Xeloda for six months. I never had any trouble digesting the pills, but you need to take them with food. It was a pain to swallow all those pills but MUCH MUCH MUCH preferable to traditional chemo. The hand and foot thing is a real problem. Take vitamin B6 to combat it and buy some eucerin and bag balm. A cold pack also helped my feet feel better. It wasnt a deal breaker, but it was annoying. The Xeloda really helped quite a bit. Good luck!