Xeloda is tablet form of 5FU, in the UK Xeloda (tablets) are used more commonly than the infusion.

Unluckily for me I am allergic to 5FU and the reaction was worse with tablets than infusion. With tablets it's two weeks on one week off, with the infusion it's two/three days on and 11/12 days off. In both cases treatment in conjunction with Oxali is the standard.

For a number of reasons my treatment was done as in patient and it was done as an IV rather with a Picc line or a port.

The decision to take Xeloda over the infusion was mine, but my oncologist concurred with that decision. They are the same medicine, and the only drawback to taking the pills that my onc was concerned about is how disciplined the patient is in taking them every day for 2 weeks, without fail., and then one week off. I took 3 pills in the morning and 4 every evening. In 6 months of treatment I only forgot to take them once, and remembered a few hours later so no harm done.

The Xeloda was covered by my Rx coverage.......I paid $40/3 weeks as the copay. The difference for the oncology office is they bill for the infusion, and the drugs, and the cost to administer it.....a tidy sum. I had 2 infusions with the Oxi in oncology office and they were billed at $6,000 each. So yeah, I believe the docs lose money if you choose pills.

My side effects with Xeloda were very manageable, but I was on a "medium" dose, it was the Oxi that did me in and landed me in the hospital for 5 days. I'm now 2 years out from the surgery and still cancer free.....if I had to do it again I would definitely choose the pills over the infusion.

mykids2......Talk with your doctor about it, he/she may have good reasons for preferring 5fu to Xeloda, and if you are getting Oxi you still have to go in for the infusion. I don't think Xeloda is still in trial period......it has been used for many years for colon and breast cancer. I discovered it online.....there is a lot of information out there and study results. I do wonder if I hadn;t asked about it my first onc visit, and suggested I might do better on pills than the pump, if he would have offered it. I'm claustrophobic and the thought of being tethered to a chair for the infusion, then tied to a pump for a couple days gave me instant panic attacks.

hi hun,xeloda is a proven drug and not in a trial period, i live in the Uk, and xeloda is the chosen drug rather than 5fu, no ports just tablets, but as others have mentioned you have to be disciplined and take them yourself no one is monitering you take the tablets. Just cos they are tablets dont mean they arent strong, i was told to make sure no one else in family handles them. I had severe fatigue, that was my only reaction, but my oncologist said it was rare to have fatigue as severe as mine. Everyones reaction to chemo is different , its a try and see thing really. good luck with which ever you decide, i do wonder if in other countries where insurance are paying if they go for the cheaper option, not sure though, best wishes

Hi MK xeloda was my only form of chemo I was stage III with not lymph involvement. I took 4 tablets in the morning and 4 in the evening for two week then a week off which entailed blood tests and a visit to the oncologist.

Have heard sypemtoms of feet and hand syndrome in which the skin on the feet and hands end up like severe sun burn and very painful to walk on. Have heard it described as trying to walk on broken glass.

For me I had no real side effects except for a slight numbness in my bottom lip and a bit of short term memory loss. I was able to work fulltime whilst on xeloda and it did not effect my ability to work. I am now 5 years post chemo and I have no ongoing side effects.

But as others said talk to your oncologist.

G8

Hi, I've had both. I originally had the Folfox (oxaliplatin & 5fu) with the pump for the 46 hours. I did 9 rounds that way. At the end of round 9, I had a port malfunction. They were going to discontinue the oxali anyway after #10, so that stopped one early. I was then put on Xeloda pills for the last few treatments - 2 weeks on & 1 off at 2000mg twice a day. I personally had minimal side effects from both the 5fu and the Xeloda. I found I was more fatigued after the 5fu, but I did get slight hand and foot syndrome from the Xeloda.
I did prefer the pills to the pump - I felt like more of a normal person not having to go for those infusions, but you'll still be having the oxali, so you might not feel that way. You won't be having that nice 12 day break between treatments if you take the pills, so keep that in mind.

thank you all so much for the info. I am wondering if one would be tired longer if the tablets are taken for two straight weeks? I am usually tired the first week after 5fu, then feel like a normal person the following week. I did email my onc for me to try xeloda, so we'll see. It's no fun carrying around a 7lb pump for 2 days every 2 weeks.

Optimal management for metastatic breast cancer frequently involves cytotoxic chemotherapy. Over the years, several complex multidrug regimens have been developed that were based upon a rationale of synergistic antitumor activity and nonoverlapping toxicities. However, recently the clinical value of these complex regimens has been called into question as several drugs used alone (monotherapy) or in sequence (serial single agent) have been shown to be both efficacious and better tolerated. Capecitabine (an orally administered fluoropyrimidine carbamate) is one such agent that has been proven to be effective when used alone for metastatic breast cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer, and adjuvant colon cancer. In this review, published (or reported in abstract form) data examining various aspects of clinical response and tolerability with single-agent capecitabine for (primarily) first- and second-line metastatic breast cancer are examined. For the most part, response rates are comparable with those of the more complex regimens. Dose reductions from the labeled dose of 1,250 mg/m2 twice daily are relatively common. Toxicities (following dose reductions if needed) are generally manageable, even by more frail patients. Elderly patients are more likely to have impaired renal function or be receiving warfarin treatment, and special attention to these factors is warranted. Nonetheless, the drug administered alone is a reasonable choice when single-agent chemotherapy is entertained as a treatment option for metastatic breast cancer, including in the first-line setting

Chris Twelves, professor of clinical cancer, pharmacology, and oncology at the University of Leeds, UK, conducted a study before 2005 on 1,987 patients with Dukes' C (Stage III) colon cancer who had already had surgery. His study showed that patients on Xeloda had fewer side effects from the drug than patients being treated with traditional chemotherapy. Patients on Xeloda spent 85 percent less of their time seeing their doctor or needing to be in the hospital than patients on chemotherapy.

These early results from the study helped to clear FDA approval for using the drug in the US in 2005.

Professor Twelve's study has now spanned a time period of five years. His new results show that colon patients treated with Xeloda also have a higher survival rate. Professor Twelve's study shows that 71 percent of patients being treated with Xeloda were still alive after five years, as opposed to the 68 percent of patients who were still alive after being treated with chemotherapy. The increase in survival rate helps to prove that the chemotherapy drug is more effective than traditional chemotherapy injections.

Professor Twelve is convinced that the long-term evidence clearly demonstrates that the oral chemotherapy drug is far more effective than injection, or intravenous chemotherapy. Plus, the fact that it induces fewer side effects makes Xeloda the safer and more practical treatment.

Libra, that is the information I found on the internet and took to my onc on the first visit. That is how the conversation started on what regimen we would use to treat my stage IIIb colon cancer, When I started on Xeloda he added Oxilaplatin, with the idea that it would give me somewhat higher rates, but since I had to stop that part after my hospitalization, I was happy I was on Xeloda and not 5fu, not being confined to a chemo "chair" or the pump helped me cope. There were times I felt guilty because my chemo seemed so much easier than what I had read about here and people I talked with at the Oncology center. I think we have the idea that Chemo HAS to be REALLY awful, and if it isn't, then we aren't fighting hard enough.

Certainly it was no picnic, and I still have some residual effects after 18 months off the chemo, but every day it gets better.....and I am 2 years cancer free from my surgery.

Hi " mykids2" - Did you decide to have Xeloda treatment? I am on Xeloda, and have two cycles to go . I have not experienced any major side effect. I was diagnosed for colon cancer Stage3 with two lymph nodes positive out of 47 resecting during the surgery. The dose administered by onc depends on your health condition, the age, the past ilnesses and calculated the size of your body in m3. Xeloda is the fisrt choice in UK and in Europe. According to some research, efficacy of Xeloda / capecitabine / was found to be equal to efficacy of the traditional regimens if not even better.

My onc tells me US is bit slower in advances in studies than UK and their is no definitive answer for effectiveness of xeloda. Something to that effect and he mainly prescribes it to elderly cancer patients. There is so much info on the net and one I came across was side effects of switching from 5fu to xeloda http://fightcolorectalcancer.org/research_news/2008/07/switching_from_5fu_to_xeloda_can_cause_significant_side_effects. I know it's an old article, but it really scared me when I read comparison between the two and "death" being in xeloda list ( probably from not being able to monitor toxicity) but not in 5fu. Ugh! I really wanted to try xeloda, but after reading some info on i net, I have more questions for the onc. He was basically trying to convince me that as long as nothing wrong w/port that I should stick w/oxali& 5fu.
My platelets are low ( onc blames oxali) but its one of 5 fu side effects. had a week off to think about it. Im 42, healthy,but after the 5th round of chemo, my blood pressure went up, onc claims chemo has nothing to do w/it? Now I'm starting to question wether my onc knows what he's talking about.... I just want to scream and want to stop chemo after hearing on news or reading on internet about damage to organ cells some chemo can cause in long run. Im feeling paranoid! Need to stop reading Ito it too much! I'll call my onc tomorrow to clear things out. We'll see.

I think you have read some very negative information about Xeloda. We all are different and we react differently to all medications. I am 73 years old and am on relatively stron daily dose of Xeloda and so far I experienced some side effects related to H/F syndrom which is a major side effects while taking Xeloda. Some people experience it more severely / cracks in the skin on your palm and feet /. I had a very minor inconvenience. For all side effects, a recent improvement in managing those effects are fantastic and you have an obligation to monitor right away before they kick in in a more severe way. You are a young person and your immune system and health condition is much better than mine, so you should not have much worries about dramatic side effect you were reading about.
Wishing you all the best in picking a right for you decision.
Ed

I didnt ask you what kind of cancer have you been diagnosed ?
What kind of cancer ? Has the tumor been resected ? Is is metastized
to a distant organs ?

colon ca. 5 cm mass, had laparoscopic colectomy,( almost a foot of my colon) Dec 21 2011. stage 3b 2 lymph nodes out of 15. not lynch syndrome, but sporadic. you sound strong. I am a whimp when it comes to chemo, cos i watched my mother go through chemo 4 yrs ago (non-hodgkins lymphoma) and having it return to take her life, (mets to liver then lung), but she also had active hep b since late 90s. (we are asian descent), she didn't know she had it until it became active. I too am hbv carrier, but it is not active. I don't drink, smoke, drugs etc. and try to live a liver friendly environment. so when it comes to chemo, I get a little paranoid.