Robert Harris75 said:Hey
Maybe someone has some experience and can help with this situation:
My mom is on capecitabine chemo and she’s dealing with pretty intense hand-foot syndrome. Her feet are red, inflamed, and she has a few shallow sores that bleed sometimes, but the main thing is the pain and burning. It settles down a bit during her off-weeks, but mostly the symptoms just stick around. Her oncologist basically said there isn't much they can do and that it's just how it goes.
Does anyone know of anything that might help ease the symptoms or help the wounds heal?
Thanks
Hey. I wasn't on that specific treatment, but I used Immufen cream as a preventative specifically for that issue. I'm not totally sure if it's okay to put on skin that's already damaged, though. Immufen has 10% urea plus some other stuff.
There's also a cheaper, more "standard" alternative to that cream—I once got a foot cream with 10% urea as a gift. That helped my aunt, whose oncologists also told her they didn't have anything for it (her issues were milder). Anyway, nobody ever officially advised us to use creams, and I don't know how smart it is to use them on broken skin. Definitely check first. It's a shame you can't get this info right at the start of treatment; it's a mystery why most doctors don't seem to know about it... Looking at US sites, they really praise urea for preventing hand-foot syndrome, especially with capecitabine.