Side Effects of Oxaliplatin

https://ruesch.georgetown.edu/rueschr...
Oxaliplatin is a common chemotherapy drug often administered via a mediport. Side effects include nausea, possible lower blood counts, and sensitivity to cold things (touch and drinking). Over many cycles of the medicine, you may have nerve sensitivity.

Transcript:
Common chemotherapy called oxaliplatin. Been around for 10 or 15 years, only IV, and really is pretty hard on peripheral veins. So, your doctor probably will want you to have a mediport put in, because it's much easier if you have one of these special catheters, than putting it in a regular IV.

So, this medicine, a little bit of nausea associated with it, so your doc will be recommending some anti-nausea medicine to take before and maybe after. Not really a hair loss drug so much. But on the night that you get it, you will go home, and when you put your hands in the freezer, you will know what we're talking about. You're very sensitive to cold. When you touch something cold, or drink something cold, it feels funny. And it can last for several days.

So, it's not really hurting anything, but most people say ah, I'm going to stay away from the cold for a few days after each dose of the oxaliplatin.

Now, over many, many, many cycles of the medicine, you can begin to get nerve toxicity, where it really is numb, tingly, and people can have trouble buttoning buttons and the like. So, this is not something we want. It is hard to predict, so it's hard for us to say this is when it'll happen, or that's when it'll happen. And I have to tell you that sometimes we've stopped the medicine before people get nerve toxicity, then only to find out that a month or two later the nerve toxicity starts.

So, we try to use the oxaliplatin medicine wisely, but at the same time avoid that nerve toxicity. So, a little bit of nausea, can drop blood counts. Not much in the hair loss department. But we all focus a lot on the neuropathy of this medicine.