Xeloda (Capecitabine) for Breast Cancer

Overview
Xeloda is a prescription drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat metastatic breast cancer. Xeloda may be prescribed either as monotherapy (on its own) in cases resistant to paclitaxel and an anthracycline-containing regimen, or in combination with docetaxel after failure of previous anthracycline-containing therapy. Xeloda is also referred to by its drug name, capecitabine.

Xeloda is a targeted therapy in a class of drugs called nucleoside metabolic inhibitors. Xeloda is believed to work by inhibiting the formation of DNA, slowing the growth of tumor cells and killing them.

How do I take it?
Prescribing information states that Xeloda is taken twice daily.

Xeloda comes in tablet form.

Side effects
The FDA-approved label for Xeloda lists common side effects including diarrhea, fatigue, weakness, hand-and-foot syndrome (redness, swelling, and pain on palms of hands and soles of feet, potentially causing blisters and temporary loss of fingerprints), nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and jaundice, which indicates a serious side effect.

Rare but serious side effects listed for Xeloda include severe diarrhea, damage to the heart, kidney failure, fetal harm, blood cell disorders, liver problems, potentially fatal skin infections including Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis, and bleeding disorders that may lead to death.

For more details about this treatment, visit:

Xeloda — Genentech
https://www.gene.com/patients/medicines/xeloda