What are your opinions and experiences with oral versus IV chemotherapy? What are the benefits of each?

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PaulaRyanMDPhD (Physician - Oncology - Hematology/Oncology (Verified) ) - 02 / 24 / 2012

Both oral and IV chemotherapy can be highly effective strategies for the treatment of breast cancer and which drug your doctor recommends may be related to the timing of treatment, what prior treatment you may have had, what type of breast cancer you have and patient preference. For metastatic breast cancer, one widely used drug is oral capecitabine (Xeloda). Another oral drug we use frequently for metastatic HER2+ tumors is a drug called lapatinib (Tycerb). The vast majority of the drugs we use are IV and many of them have been used for years; others are newer IV drugs (eribulin, ixabepilone, for example) and all have proven effectiveness. Sometimes, practical reasons may dictate whether oral or IV medications are used. If someone has a problem swallowing or taking pills then we use IV drugs and if someone has a preference for taking pills for convenience then we certainly take that into consideration.
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