Xeloda for early-stage breast cancer?

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berries
berries Member Posts: 277
edited January 2020 in Chemotherapy - Before, During, and After

Has anyone been on Xeloda who was ER/PR+, HER2neg and stage I-III? I've been reading many trials that prove the efficacy of this drug after surgery and the increase in disease-free survival.

I would like to discuss going on Xeloda with my MO to reduce my chance of recurrence, but I'm in a weird situation.

I had surgery first! (no lymph node involvement was seen on imaging, felt or suspected); after surgery, 4 of my lymph nodes tested positive. So, I rushed into chemo and I can't really know its actually working since I no longer have the litmus test of my mass to see shrinking and I can't say I've had a pathological complete response, sadly. Some days I wish I did chemo first to really know that the poison I'm pumping through me every other week is actually worth it.

Anyhow, I'd like to go on Xeloda because of the trails and studies I have read that prove such a benefit.

Has anyone been in my situation? Has anyone gone on Xeloda for early stage BC when they've had NOT had neoadjuvent chemo?

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  • berries
    berries Member Posts: 277
    edited December 2019

    bump

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  • berries
    berries Member Posts: 277
    edited January 2020

    bump! anyone able to offer advice?

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  • santabarbarian
    santabarbarian Member Posts: 3,085
    edited January 2020

    I wonder whether or not you could get covered for it.... I am under the impression it is prescribed for those w residual disease after Neoadjuvant chemo.

    I am not in your situation as I was TNBC but I have ket an eye on Xeloda.

    I think there may be more SEs than would be warranted if you are technically disease free... maybe there's a "prevention" clinical trial out there though?

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  • pupmom
    pupmom Member Posts: 5,068
    edited January 2020

    So, I'm not sure why you would want more chemo, if it doesn't seem to be indicated. (Maybe I am missing something?) If you have no symptoms and are doing well, I would go with that and live your life to the fullest. Best wishes, I know it is hard emotionally to navigate through this disease.

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  • berries
    berries Member Posts: 277
    edited January 2020

    I know its crazy, but studies have shown an increase in overall disease free survival and I want to know, at my young age, that I have exhausted absolutely every possible avenue, drug and treatment option available to me to live a long, long life.

    I have terrible anxiety about recurrence and I can't really say that I have any residual disease after neoadjuvant therapy since I had surgery first.

    Would love to hear from anyone considering it or who has taken it who did not have neoadjuvant therapy.

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  • RatherBeSailing
    RatherBeSailing Member Posts: 130
    edited January 2020

    I was ER/PR+/HER2- and had an excellent response to neoadjuvant chemo. I was offered Xeloda after surgery. At the time, the CreateX trial results had just been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was on Japanese and Korean women.

    While the results for hormone receptor negative women were very good, there was a small benefit for ER/PR+ in years one-four, but then it seemed to flatten out (the graph was buried in the appendix.) The study only followed women for five years, so who knows what the benefit would be in later years.

    I declined the Xeloda, based on those results, the fact that a lot of women in the CreateX trial dropped out due to significant foot-hand syndrome, and also that different races process chemo differently, so the doses and results of that study wouldn't necessarily translate to Caucasian or black women.

    All I can say is that my providers did not disagree with my reasoning (one flat-out said he wouldn't recommend it for me) and I've never looked back on that decision. But if you're worried it couldn't hurt to discuss with your MO.

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  • AntigoneResurrected
    AntigoneResurrected Member Posts: 29
    edited January 2020

    I'm not exactly in your situation because I have TNBC, but I'm taking Xeloda right now. I just finished my 2nd cycle. I'm kind of cursed when it comes to drug side effects, so I'm experiencing some of the "rare" ones, and I'm not really enjoying myself, but I'm going to try to stick through at least a reduced (please FSM let them reduce my dosage) dosage for 6 cycles. The hand-foot syndrome started at the end of this past cycle, redness and significant pain with walking. Along with a whole host of other side effects. I'm actually going in tomorrow to talk to them about filling out short -term disability paperwork for partial short-term disability because the fatigue is SOOOO overwhelming this time (sooooo much worse than with the A/C or T!).

    But at my young age, and with the recurrence stats for TNBC, I wanted to make sure I exhausted EVERYTHING. Both my "regular" oncology team, and my trial team (I also participated in an immunotherapy trial) recommended I take capecitabine. I *will* say that I did my own research, and a study came out after CreateX that showed that the benefit to TNBC patients is actually only for a small subset of us, but we don't have the testing on me to know if I fit into the small subset (and trust me, yes, I'm frustrated by the fact that I could be putting myself through hell for no benefit).

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