Onc suggested chemo pill for maintanence . Has anyone done this?

falsemaria

Triple negative. I had 8 rounds neo-adjuvant chemo, parital mastectomy and a follow-up surgery, 11 lymph nodes removed w/6 affected, and now start 30x radiation.

My oncologist wants to start me on a chemo pill after radiation which I would take indefinitely to help keep the cancer from returning. He did not say which one, Side effects, etc. and I won't be seeing him for a month.

I thought there would be all kind of info on the internet but I have not come across anything. I also do not know if Xeloda is the pill he was referring to.

I was hoping someone on the thread was doing this option and what their experience is.

Tracy

TulipsAndDaffodils

I wonder if it's capecitabine (brand name:Xeloda). That is taken orally, and there was a very promising presentation at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in December from a study out of Japan. They gave capecitabine to HER2 negative women (about 1/3 of which were TNBC) if they had residual disease after neoadjuvant chemo. The TNBC women responded particularly well, with a 42% reduction in risk (which I take to mean that if you started out with a 50% risk of recurrence, you would go down to about a 30% risk). The lead investigator's name was Dr. M.Toi, you can google and find lots of detailed articles. Basically, capecitabine was used as a maintenance drug,although they put the women into 6-8 rounds of the drug, not indefinite.

How much residual cancer did you have? I also had residual after neoadjuvant. I had an 8 mm tumor left, and was RCB2. I am halfway through radiation, and I want my doctor to put me on capecitabine after, but he doesn't want to (although he said let's discuss it again when I see him in February). My friend in Boston said her doctor had told her he'd put her on capecitabine after surgery if she ended up RBC2 or RCB3 (but I just heard awesome news for her, she ended up with a pCR! So happy for her). Anyway, good luck with whatever you do. Are you hoping to do the extra chemo or not? I didn't have the hardest time with my 6 months on AC & T, so I'm not totally dreading it, but I hate the worry I have, so feel that the extra chemo may help both my cancer and my peace-of-mind!

Tulips

falsemaria

Yes Xeloda is the drug he wanted to put me on. However, I just had a PET scan about 45 days after my last radiation and it showed activity in my Liver. I just a a biopsy and I'm waiting for the results.

If the biopsy is negative I am definitely going on the Xeloda. My Onc thinks I'll have no trouble with it and can return to work - and he knows my job is highly stressful. I actually went back to work a week after ending chemo and worked 83 hours!

I also didn't have a hard time with chemo - so it sounds to me that Xeloda would be a good choice.