gemzar and xeloda for pancreatic cancer

My onco tried me on taxol, and avastin, then xeloda. Neither of these worked. He suggests that I try Jemzar. I have stage IV mestatic breast cancer that has spread to my spine. I was dx in Feb 2002. I have previously been on different chemo.surgery, hormonal.. arimidex, aromosin, fasoldex . and several radiation treatments. I am undecided on doing any more chemo. My cancer , of course , is er/pr positive. Is there any advice on this chemo. or is there another hormonal I could try.

After one three-week cycle my doctor discontinued the Xeloda. I was able to complete treatment with the oxiliplatin. This was in 2004 and I am cancer free today. Ask your mother's doctor for something else. If possible she should not stop chemo until her doctor is certain no trace of cancer remains in her lymph system. Good luck.

Some anti-cancer drugs, like Bexxar (used for lymphoma) can potentially cause hypothyroidism and you need to use Lugol's solution to prevent this. But Gemcitabine does not have this effect.

Your question would probably be best answered by someone in the expert forum. I do know though, that my father was given Xeloda for his lung cancer. The doctor described it as a "smart drug" which attacked cancer cells.

My husband was diagnosed with colon Cancer in Feb 2007. He took chemo drug Xeloda and had standard radiation. During a check up in January 2008, tumors were found in his lungs- one in each lung, sizes: 7mm and 13mm. He took chemo: Folfox, Avastin, Oxaliplatin, and Xeloda until April 2008. The April CT scan revealed that the tumors had grown slightly and that there were four more small nodules visable.

Anyone ever use Xeloda pills? It is for colon cancer, but has been used in ovarian too. More for mucinous type. My cancer got pretty active on last treatment.

She has brest cancer since 8 years, is 74 years old and has a 4 centimeter tumor on her sternum (breats are clear), some on her axilery and maybe it has mestastasized in her lungs (we won't know until her next cat scan in 3 weeks. She was for 2 years on that red liquid chemo (forgot the name) but now the doctors switched her to Xeloda since 2 weeks. The side effects are terrible. Her feet are swollen, hurt terribly, nausea etc.

m posting here a couple of links which will provide you with detailed product information about Gemzar and Doxil, including the indicated uses and side effects of these drugs. I hope this helps you make your decision. Gemzar product info: http://www.drugs.com/pro/gemzar.html Doxil product info: http://www.drugs.com/pro/doxil.

5KGS AT 5FT HEIGHT, WE ARE TREATING THE METS WHICH HAS GONE TO HER LUNGS AND BONES AND LIVER WITH XELODA 1GRAM TWICE A DAY FOR 14 DAYS, AND THEY SCARED US WITH THE SIDE EFFECTS,BUT WE ARE ALSO GIVING HER HOMEOPATHY. WE ARE GIVING A GOOD NUTRITIONAL DIET ALONG WITH A PROTINEX SUPPLEMENT. ON 5TH OF FEB IS HER APPOINTMENT WITH THE ONCO. I HOPE XELODA HAS ARRESTED THE GROWTH OF CANCER CELLS. IF IT HAS CAN YOU TELL ME HOW MANY CYCLES CAN SHE TAKE WITHOUT IT DOING MUCH HARM.

My question is, can someone, with cancer as severe as hers is, (its in her lymphnodes and lower back as well, but, liver cancer is extensive and advanced, had cancer 1st 3 yrs ago, did a lumpectomy, and treatment for 8 months, then 4 months later it was back, then did a total mastectomy, treatment for (chemo) for 6 mo, was still on Herceptin when she became jauntice, tests revealed liver cancer) can someone live on the combination drugs (Tykerb, Xeloda) for years?

The first is an acute onset numbness/tingling observed within hours of infusion, and which can last for 1-3 days. The second type of neuropathy is a chronic numbness which can last until 3 - 4 months of discontinuing Oxaliplatin. This chronic neuropathy is dose dependent, and usually occurs when the patient has accumulated a dose equivalent to around 10 - 14 sessions of chemotherapy (850 -1200 mg/m2).

My mom is 57yrs old and was diagnosised last June 07 with Pancreas Cancer. It was supposley "sucessfully removed". The doctors wanted her to do Chemo to keep the cancer or cells from spreading if they missed anything however she has an immune problem and gets treatment IVIG injections ever month.

Hi. Of the drugs you mentioned, Xeloda (Capecitabine) and Oncolet (Letrozole) are the ones exerting therapeutic effects on your mother's cancer. All the other drugs are just supportive medication. Xeloda is a cytotoxic (kills cancer cells) oral chemotherapy drug. Oncolet is a form of hormonal treatment designed to reduce the circulating estrogen in your mother's body, thereby reducing the growth stimulus of the cancer cells.

I had Carbo/Taxol, 6 cycles, 9 months of Taxol as maintenance and then failed that. Went to Gemzar and stayed with that for 9 months and have recently failed that too. After 2 attempts of desensitizing me to Carbo, which failed over the weekend in the hospital, there is so much out there for us. I think it is just a matter of finding the right combo and keeping the nasty cancer at bay. What stage are you? I am lllc, diagnosed 4/06.

I was on Gemzar for 5 cycles,and when I had to stop because of side effects it was 15. Then it gradually went back up and within 4 months I was back on chemo again,this time Topotecan. My Onc goes by my ct scans....the ca-125 test is a good indicator for me,but he will not treat until it showes up on other scans.

I am on Gemzar and it is one of those that can start off bad or stop working. A friend of mine didn't see a decrease until her third treatment. Mine went down rapidly through the second treatment, 3rd it went down 1 pt, 4th no decrease so... Yes, I got that good news yesterday also. What has your onc had to say about it. Mine has told me I need to finish the 2nd half of the 5th treatment and than the 6th as well. He said it is just a lull and will probably still come down.

All I recall is that the Dr who dx me, told me it was a very aggressive cancer and needed to be treated aggressively. I will have to try and remember to ask my onc next week.

The last jump after 2 rounds of doxil went from 944 to 1167. It had been increasing since December. She started Gemzar last week and has one more round before her week "off". Then we see. Anyway, it's all becoming a blur and I deal better with some kind of expectation....even if it is bad. Just thought I'd ask what to expect and what was "normal". Although there is no "normal" in Ovarian Cancer. I get that. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

we do not have a way to boost the platelets unlike blood transfusions and iron therapy for the red cells and neupogen or neulasta for white counts. The only time we do platelet transfusions is if there is active bleeding in the setting of a low platelet count or the count is below 10 thousand and we worry about spontaneous bleeding.

I was treated with Adriamycin/CYTOXIN Along with 33 rounds of radiation. I was also on tamoxifen for 10 mos. and have since had a local reoccurrence in the lymph node in my neck. The lymph node has been removed and biopsied and came back the same as before. Weakly positive ER 20%.,Her2 neg. PR neg.. i'm concerned that the tamoxifin did not work. My oncologists is deciding between xeloda , a chemo pill or arimidex. Any thoughts?

My mom took Xeloda also as a maintenance drug for colorectal cancer. Typically diet and exercise do not affect CEA levels; however, inflammation can affect it. Sometimes CEA levels will rise if there is any type of inflammation. I know this is a scary time. Feel free to send me a message if you need to talk.

For how long had the pancreatic cancer been delveloping at the head of the pancreas? Can anybody give an estimation of how long it took for the stage 3 pancreatic tumour to develop at the head of the pancreas?

doxil toptecan gemzar cytoxan taxotere navelbine hexamethylmelamine hormone therapies: tamoxifen arimidex experimental avastin avastin in combination with a chemo drug such as cytoxan, or taxol, or carbo prognosis is tricky. It is unlikely that your mother will have the experience of a durable remission. It is possible that her cancer and symptoms could be controlled with chemo for a while. That does mean that she should expect to be on chemo chronically.

Within a month, the breast cancer started in her skin around the site of the node. She now has a red rash (skin mets) in approx half of her chest wall and is getting Chemo (Xeloda) and Herceptin. My question is, the skin is beginning to "harden" around the node removal surgery site. What does this mean? Any other comments on Skin mets would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Marty, I have had Gemzar/carbo and Gemzar for recurrence. I had Gemzar/carbo day 1 to be followed by gemzar day 8. My red blood counts and platelets and white counts were too low for day 8, so I got aranesp and did day 8 on day 14. On rd. 2 she changed day 8 to be done on day 14. The bloodwork was worse, so it was day 21 to get the rd 2 gemzar. Part 1 of rd. 3 i reacted to the carbo so I had cytoxan/gemzar this past wed..

Gemzar and xeloda for pancreatic cancer

Common Questions and Answers about Gemzar and xeloda for pancreatic cancer

xeloda