Question about hand and foot syndrome from Xeloda?
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Pamela
I took Xeloda whilst being treated in France and wa given a herbal Calendula cream which I found really cooling and because it was slightly greasy helped with dryness too. Good luck.
Sandie xHi, Eli,
Thanks for the article. I think” preventive” in a sense means ” apply the cream as early as possible when the hand foot and skin symptoms(HFS) just developed.(like figure 2 A or B in the article you mentioned) There are different degrees (Grades 1-4) of the HFS. The early signs are reddish color and skin start to peel or crack. at that point moisturized cream such as Eucerin cream may be helpful too as well as the 10% urea cream.
The only topical cream that I know for sure working for burn patients is 1% Silver sulfadiazine Cream and that is a prescription item . I do not know what MEBO is, but if apply the silver sulfadiazine cream and covered with a moisted towel or gauze pad ,it will work too.
The article you mentioned is from China, they may compound their own MEBO from the Chinese herbal medicine formulas and therefore I cannot find the medical name for MEBO.
AT the convention on ASCO 2011 last year, there were a poster for treating the HFS by soaking in a Chinese herbal mixture twice daily or daily in it for a short period of time for several weeks and the picture show the same improvement of the HFS as figure 4 in the article you mentioned above .http://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/Meetings/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=102&abstractID=80328
God bless.
I used the Eucerin with urea in it. Nonstop. I wore socks the entire time to keep the lotion on and I put so much lotion on my feet were white. I lotioned my hands as much as I could and just tried to keep the lotion on. I also got the moo lotion and tried that after my treatment was over (that’s about when I got the package). It worked while I was on treatment. I had burning and redness but no peeing. But I got lazy after treatment. After about 2 weeks, the burning was less and I wanted to wear sadals. So I quit keeping my feet lotioned. They eventually peeled So I went bck to lotion until the peeling was done. A few days to a week. Now it’s over and I can wear sandals again.
Here’s a paper that looked at the management of hand foot syndrome in the patients receiving Capecitabine (Xeloda):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2796406/
They used moist exposed burn ointment (MEBO) to treat Grade 2 and Grade 3 syndromes. They found it to be quite effective. My guess is that it requires a prescription.
If you are not squeamish, take a look at Figure 4 in the paper. It shows two patients before and after application of MEBO.
Patient 1, Grade 2 syndrome: A – before, B – after
Patient 2, Grade 3 syndrome: C – before, D – afterPercy, thanks for the link. The study looked at how urea cream can be used to prevent hand foot syndrome. There is no discussion of the treatment once the syndrome develops.
Hi, Eli,
I cannot find the exact poster which is appeared in a poster session at ASCO 2012. But here is another one about the urea cream.
http://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/Meetings/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=114&abstractID=97226
God bless.
Percy, do you have a source for this note?
“but not when symptoms occur” … how important is this?
My wife applied tons of cream after she developed symptoms. Her feet ended up being a big mess. Lots of bubbling, cracking and peeling. Now that I see your note, I wonder if the cream made things worse.
Hi,
From ASCO 2012 notes.
2. For hand foot and skin side effect,apply 10% urea cream at the beginning of the therapy,but not when symptoms occur,will delay the occurrence and severity of the problem.
God bless.Pam,
I think I read somewhere that Xeloda is worse than 5-FU in terms of hand-foot syndrome. Not sure if it’s true or not. My wife got a terrible h/f syndrome from 5-FU.
Our hospital recommended this cream:
http://www.udderlysmooth.com/dry-skin-udderly-smooth-udder-cream.shtml
As the name suggests, it was originally developed to be used on dairy cows. But it’s not just for cows. They do make a human formula. It should be available at WalMart and many other locations. See the list here:
http://www.udderlysmooth.com/availability.shtml
Like Lauren, my wife complained about foot pain and difficulty walking. She found it helpful to wear thick socks and thick slippers, to double cushion her feet.
Lauren woke up this morning and said her feet were starting to burn and they are kind of red. She said it is hard to walk on them. She has always had tough skin on the bottom from going barefoot a lot. I think it is the start of hand and foot syndrome from being on Xeloda. She didn’t get this with 5-FU. Why would she get it with Xeloda? Anyway, my question is: What have you found to be the best cream or lotion?
Also, any tips you might have will be greatly appreciated. Gio put baby lotion on her feet tonight and she wrapped them in Saran Wrap and put short little socks on. Thanks.
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