Xeloda Side Effects

[Carolyns]

Greetings smart friends,

I start Xeloda tomorrow and am looking for advise on how to prevent side effects. First I wonder about nausea - I seem to get it easily and this medicine is taken for 2 weeks. Recently on Navelbine I used Aloxi and it worked for three days and that worked fine. Now (if I get nausea) what do I do and for how long? I got a prescription for Zofran and am going to buy ginger tea. Any thoughts or advise? Anyone usually get nausea and found that the did not have a problem with Xeloda?

I will be combining it with Tykerb. I have been on Tykerb once in combination with Herceptin and did not have much trouble there. So I am mainly concerned about Xeloda.

Thanks in advance for sharing your words of wisdom.

Carolyn

[Sheila]

Carolyn
I never have taken Tykerb, but I took Xeloda for over a year and had no problems whatsoever...it was combined with Herceptin...I was on 2500mg a day...I believe this is the new standard...some onc. still want to use 4000 mg a day...so if you get that dose and have side effects, it can be reduced and still work. I took 1500 in the morning and 1000 at night...i believe Brenda was on Tykerb Xeloda....hopefully she will see this and reply. Good luck to you!

[Pam P]

I was on xeloda for over 3 yrs. Mostly with herceptin, but with tykerb for the last year or so. I never got any nausea. My only complaint with xeloda was that I got the hand/foot syndrome where they were red, sore, sometimes the skin would split. If that happens ask to reduce your dose. I started on either 3500 or 4000 mg/day. I did drop to 3000 eventually. I know others have had good result on lower. If you have issues with your hand/feet, get some good moisturerizers & use them often. I thought xeloda was a very tolerable treatment - it didn't even feel like I was on chemo. I cried when I had to go back to an IV kind.

[Rich66]

If you google xeloda and henna you will find a site that has a recipe for topical treatment of HF syndrome. Lotions seem to help but aggressively rubbing them in can worsen things. There is another complete thread here to search for