Trying not to hijack, but maybe a bit of a perspective from the Canuck side of things (in BC anyway)
Xeloda was free to me during neoadjuvant chemoradiation (28 treatments plus continuous oral meds including weekends)...BUT..gotta love this...NOT covered at all for adjuvant chemo post-op.
So the government would rather pay for a couple of nurses, an infusion bed, an onsite oncologist and all the support staff & equipment etc., than have me go home with a vial of pills and see the doc every 2 weeks for blood tests !!! ???
Gotta love that....my tax dollars at work !
The problem was that, at that time, Xeloda alone was not funded as a stand alone protocol for folks with complete pathologiocal response to neoadjuvant chemoradiation...or so the Insurance Providers said (don't get me started on those a-holes
) SO I chose Xeloda anyway, paid my own ($3,000.00), got about $500.00 back through Roche Patient assisatnce, and claimed the rest on my annual income tax medical expenses.
Update to 2010 : so now I am on FOLFOX (could have chosen XELOX... BUT would have had to pay again because...yup..Xeloda is not funded for "pseudoadjuvant" chemo following a single isolated lung met !!!
whoopee, lucky me !
Again, I could have paid but chose 5-FU infusion +Oxaliplatin instead, because in my mind I have had the Xeloda and still got a met....so now I'll give 5-FU a try. YMMV..everyone is different.
Cheers all
CRguy