Taxotere/xeloda
Taxotere/xeloda Hi everyone,
my partner has just been told she now needs to have another lot of chemo, Taxotere. I haven’t been on here for a while but i am sure that there are some people who have capecitabine/xeloda alongside taxotere and was wondering if anyone knew why and wether it is appropriate to ask the onc about this for my partner.
She was diagnosed with liver mets may 06 and had fec last year. Progressed to spine and ribs this year and had radiotherapy, but pain still bad so ultrasound carried out on liver. Scan has shown some growth in the mets in the liver that were not particularly large last year, the ones that were large have shrunk and haven’t increased compared to the last scan in January. That in itself is also confusing and the onc doesn’t have any explanantions either!
Thanks in advance for any enlightenment
Swizzelstick
Hi swizzel I have posted this on behalf of Terry
Best wishes
Moderator
Breast Cancer care
Hi swizzel,
My wife had exactly the same plus bone mets. She had 11 sessions of taxotere and Xeloda.
They stopped the Taxotere as it is pretty hard stuff and damages other items like nails etc.
She is carrying on with just Xeloda now, a very high dose as it is measured by body mass and she is 5 ft 11 tall.
The xeloda has held the liver mets up, the remainder ( bones, lungs etc ) seemed to have stopped growing
You really need to read up on Xeloda as it has a mean working life of some 400 days average, then on to progression, Or at least that is what I have read.
It seems to work really well for the liver with minimal side effects, tiredness in my wife´s case is the worst of them.
From what I understand ( Mods please correct me if I am wrong ) the mixture of taxotere and Xeloda is a really, really strong dose and is designed for very agressive cancers that other chemo agents would have nil or very little effect on.
We were originally told my wife was unlikely to last until last Christmas, well it is June now and she is still here so hang on in there, it works !!
X
Thanks Thanks for your reply, it has shed some light i think. My partner’s bc is not an ‘agressive’ type which is the most likely reason for going for just the one. She is also having more radio which is affecting her more than it has ever done before so its also about how much to put her body through. She is suffering at the moment and that’s before chemo starts. We are just hoping that the gain will outweigh the pain so to speak.
We are a long way off ‘giving up’ and fortunately no ‘time left’ prognosis has ever been given, onc still says its chronic disease not terminal so we focus on that, though without any serious delusions.
We are both dreading how the chemo is going to affect her, the FEC she had last year wasn’t too bad as side affects go and she doesn’t think she will be so lucky this time with the Taxotere but time will tell.
Having said that, I know how hard it was for her towards the end of treatment, especially that last dose, it was metaphorically forcing herself to put her hand back into a fire knowing how painful it was previously.
Its difficult to express properly but last year we were both strong in facing it, this time around we both seem already quite broken. I find it hard already seeing her not eating, being in pain, losing weight etc and I know i have to find the strength to help her through the next 6 months or so. Physically she is not as strong as last time and i just fear it will make her worse and worse. I need to get my ‘one day at a time’ head on and stop fretting about what might happen.
So, am likely to be back around on here regularly as this is my best source of support.
Thanks again
Swizzelstick