January 26, 2018

Thoughts on XTANDI.

I started taking XTANDI (Enzalutamide) in late August. When I first met with my oncologist after taking XTANDI, I was claiming that I didn't notice any side effects. But shortly after that, I experienced hot flashes again (they had stopped after having Lupron injections for a while). I then started  having bouts of fatigue where I was napping for two or three hours a day. Then my sense of taste was affected - most noticeably Dunkin Donuts Coffee tasted really bad - so much so that I couldn't drink it. But all of these side effects ended or greatly reduced after a while.

The fourth side effect I noticed was a pain in my upper thigh, close to my hip. It really hurt when I got up after sitting for a while, and would ease off after I loosened up. Common sense
told me it was muscular, and my oncologist verified that it sounded like a side effect of XTANDI, but deep down I was worried about a reoccurrence of cancer.

I asked my oncologist the leg pain could go away - just as the other side effects had. This was on a Monday (he said yes). By Wednesday morning the pain had disappeared (after a month). So I guess I need to be patient if I experience more XTANDI.side effects. I also need to talk to my doctors and/or nurses when I notice some weird symptoms rather than assume that my cancer is back.