Xeloda cream for skin mets

My previous post used the name Efudex, which is Fluorouracil/5FU/Xeloda in a cream format. I am surprised that no one seems to have made a comment, is it that no one is aware of it or even used it? I started last Thursday for mets to remaining breast with tumour, I am also on oral Xeloda/Cycloblastin (CF no M) and I am not sure how long I should use if for, the scenario is the cream causes a sore which causes a scab which causes the diseased skin to fall off, hopefully. So not sure if it only has this reaction to a diseased area or to wherever it is applied, it does say use rubber gloves or a spatula.

Cheers Lyn

[Sheila]

Lyn
My mother in law is using this for skin cancer on her lip...it seems to be working...it looks like burnt skin where it was applied.
Hugs
Sheila

[Lolly]

Lyn, I didn't know about this cream. I'll be sure and mention it to anybody at my treatment center with skin mets as a possible tx. Keep us posted on how it works, and thanks for the info!

<3,
Lolly

Dear Lyn, I have red blotches all over my hands and a few up my arm that stops at my elbow.I am on xeloda and the doctor thought it was a reaction from the sun and the drug together. Do these sound like skin mets? Is that what yours look like? Thanks- God Bless- Cathy

Hi Cathy, skin mets is very much like any rash that just doesn't respond to normal skin treatments. My first skin mets came when I had a rash on my inner thigh, my chest and face, I saw my skin specialist who was a GP for years then decided to specialise in diseases of the skin. I went home with 3 different chreams for each area. The one on the inner thigh responded to a fungacide cream, the one on the face responded to a cortisone and the one on the chest just got bigger. When I went back he asked to do a biopsy, I think he knew then what he was looking for. I had noticed it over the weeks, it had started out very small and just got bigger, it wasn't raised just red, similar to simple rash, I had tried everything before I went for help, even to smearing honey over it but nothing worked. It was this skin mets that was diagnosed that told me I was HER 3 strongly positive and still not hormone responsive. I burst out crying or course, from frustration more than anything, I had been dealing with enlarged glands for a couple of years and then graduated to skin involvement. I took Xeloda for this and noticed it going just about straight away, then I was still on it with Herceptin for an enlarged gland on my neck and a skin mets came up on my neck, it looked like I had just rubbed the area, stopped the Xeloda and then started Navelbine which shifted the skin mets and the lump. Last Christmas my neck was still red from radiaiton and it was suspected to be skin mets and it turned out that it was only radiation damage. My latest skin mets came with a new primary site on my other breast, at first it was thought to be inflammatory breast cancer so I had radiation along with Xeloda and I got severe radiation burns, I had a couple of very small dry scaley spots come up on my breast, a bit like normal sun cancer spots which are treated with dry ice, I had these spots biopsied and they came back as being part of solid tumour, so with the redness from the radiaiton it was hard to tell if there was skin mets involved, since then I have had a few more come up so I been using the cream, but I have been putting it all over for good measure, the strange thing is that the whole time my CA15-3 tumour marker has been coming down from the original 22 to now 9, so it is a wait and see. I have stopped the eostrogen blocker to entice the cancer cells to grow, apparently this is normal so the chemo drugs can locate the cells and destroy them. I have certainly learnt a lot over the last few years.

Love & Hugs Lyn

Dear Lynn, Thanks so much for your help and explanation.It's good that you are so diligent about getting rid of them. Are skin mets itchy? The blotches on my hands and arms are sometimes itchy and some are raised. They seem to go away when I go off of xeloda. My doctor thought that the xeloda had brought out any precancers on my skin and was treating them. I did know that there was the cream you mentioned with the same ingredients as xeloda.I think there is something for everything these days. Never give up looking for the answers. We live in a remarkable age with little miracles happening all around us. God is so good to give us these medicines! God Bless You, Cathy

Hi there, the Xeloda does bring out the sun spot cancers and then gets rid of them, my problem is I am of English decent so my skin is very fair and I used to tet very sunburnt as a kid and also just driving, my hands are exposed to the sun and the right side of my face, we drive on the other side of the road here, so I have the windows tinted in my car but the sun still comes through the windscreen, when I am good and remember I put sunscreen on my hands. I have noticed that my BC skin mets only come in the area that the glands have been enlarged, that is the chest near the mastectomy scar, neck and now the remaining breast. The only sure way to find out is to have a biopsy, but it does sound to me like it is a reaction to the Xeloda if it comes and goes. My feet blistered badly when I was on the maximum dose, but not like blisters you get when you where tight shoes, they formed from the inside out, the skin on the top of my thumbs also split and I was able to walk in masseur scuffs, apparently the nobly bits confused the nerve endings, weird but it worked for me.

Love & Hugs Lyn

Hi Lynn- What are masseur scuffs? God Bless- Cathy

[Lyn]

Hi Cathy, they are slip ons, a bit like thongs except not between the toes, a strap across the top of your foot you can adjust and the part you walk on have rubber knobs, a bit like walking on a bed of nails without the points, made by Dr Scholl, they take a bit of getting used to but your feet are being massaged while you walk.

Love & Hugs Lyn