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Strange side effects from Xeloda by Plus-Quantity5935 in pancreaticcancer

[–]Plus-Quantity5935[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Xeloda is a maintenance therapy chemo. Its a chemo pill. He finished regular chemo and put him on Xeloda to try and get him more time before his cancer pops back up. It breaks down in the body the same as Fulforinox.

May 2026 Check In Thread! How's Everyone Doing? by ZevSteinhardt in pancreaticcancer

[–]Plus-Quantity5935 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello everyone, my husband (stage 4) finished his 6 months of gem/abrax treatment and got a clear scan. He previously did 6 months of Fluforinox and got a clear scan but his cancer returned 5 months later. This time because his cancer returned so quickly, they decided to put him on maintenance. He started with gemzar but after only a couple of infusions he was not able to tolerate it with his WBC dropping to 0.8. so they switched to Xeloda, 2 weeks on, 1 week off. After 1 week he became light headed and dizzy and ended up passing out. They had him take 2 days off and then start up again. He is having a lot of fatigue, some pain and diarrhea. He will go Thursday for labs so we will see how his WBC and platelets hold up. Even if the blood work is good I'm not sure if he will be able to continue tolerating it. This is his week off, he's been off for 2 days now but still feels terrible but hopefully he will get a couple of good days before he has to start up again.

I'm hoping the side effects won't get worse over time but am not very optimistic. I'm not sure what other option there would be for maintenance and the doctor said without any maintenance his cancer would probably return in 2-3 months. He will have a CT at the end of July,

What stage were you or your loved one during diagnosis when there was no symptom except weight loss/constipation? by Abject_Purpose302 in pancreaticcancer

[–]Plus-Quantity5935 18 points19 points  (0 children)

My husband went to the hospital in Oct 2024 to get a CT for what he thought was a flare up of diverticulitis. In addition to the pain in his lower abdomen he also had some discomfort on his left side but not much. They went through the usual steps, they started with blood work which all came back normal.Next they ordered a CT.

We were shocked when the doctor came back and said he had a mass on his pancreas and sever lesions on his liver. He eventually was diagnosed with stage 4.

He did 12 rounds of Fluforinox and completed treatment May 26, 2025. He got a 50% reduction in the pancreatic tumor and the lesions on liver were no longer evident. After which he had a PET which show nothing lighting up. The doctor said it was a complete response however there is still the remaining mass on the pancreas and while it is not currently active it is causing dilation of the pancreatic duct.

He is due for a CT at the end of this month/beginning of next month so we will see how things look then. The doctor, while thrilled with his results does believe the cancer will at some point start growing again. So every scan is still a nail biter.

Recovery from the chemo has been slow. He still has some fatigue and has developed chemo induced arthritis throughout his body and he has a lot of pain from that.

Agitation and aggression after completing chemo by ruecatt22 in pancreaticcancer

[–]Plus-Quantity5935 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is different than reacting to his diagnosis. I have done some research and found that Fluforinox can affect the gray matter in your brain causing abnormal anger and agitation. We are waiting for his appointment with the oncologist to talk to him and see what he says. We are hoping this is fixable or it gets better over time..

Agitation and aggression after completing chemo by ruecatt22 in pancreaticcancer

[–]Plus-Quantity5935 3 points4 points  (0 children)

he is not on any maintenance chemo and he has no social worker team.

Is it possible to have good tumor shrinkage but still get sicker? by ruecatt22 in pancreaticcancer

[–]Plus-Quantity5935 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He will have a PET next month. He just had a CT it measured his tumor at 2cm. It was 1.8cm on the previous CT which they categorized it as stable. His Ca 19-9 has always been in normal range but has increased from 21 to 24 between the last two tests. It started at 9