HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - time for new treatment plan-is xeloda still effective?

Lolly · 03-20-2006, 03:28 PM

Sarah, I only had one incident of extremely low "absolute neutrophile" counts (the white cells that fight infection). That day they were 200, with the cutoff for receiving any chemo being 500. So that day I got a Neulasta shot for white cells. By the next week my neutrophiles had zoomed up to 5000! So Neulasta is very effective, but also expensive and some insurance companies balk at paying so it would be a good idea for your friend to ask the insurance person at her onc's office to try and get it "preauthorized" if her onc determines it's appropriate therapy for her. There's also Neupogen, but the treatment is a series of daily injections, so Neulasta is more convenient. Here's a link to CancerConsultants info page on both:

http://patient.cancerconsultants.com....aspx?id=18791

<3 Lolly

03-20-2006, 03:28 PM	#12
Lolly Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Oregon Posts: 1,756	Sarah, I only had one incident of extremely low "absolute neutrophile" counts (the white cells that fight infection). That day they were 200, with the cutoff for receiving any chemo being 500. So that day I got a Neulasta shot for white cells. By the next week my neutrophiles had zoomed up to 5000! So Neulasta is very effective, but also expensive and some insurance companies balk at paying so it would be a good idea for your friend to ask the insurance person at her onc's office to try and get it "preauthorized" if her onc determines it's appropriate therapy for her. There's also Neupogen, but the treatment is a series of daily injections, so Neulasta is more convenient. Here's a link to CancerConsultants info page on both: http://patient.cancerconsultants.com....aspx?id=18791 <3 Lolly Last edited by Lolly; 03-24-2006 at 10:46 PM..