Xeloda is an oral medication for treating advanced breast cancers that are resistant to combination therapy with the drugs of choice, paclitaxel (Taxol) as well as a drug from the anthracycline family of drugs, for example, doxorubicin (Adriamycin). Xeloda is converted by the body to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), a drug which has been given intravenously for many years to treat various types of cancer. It is not surprising, therefore, that xeloda as well as is effective in the treatment of colorectal cancer, a type of cancer which is treated frequently with 5-FU. 5-FU inhibits the production of both DNA as well as protein by the cancerous cells that are essential for the cells to divide as well as the cancer to grow in size. Xeloda was approved by the FDA in 1998 for the treatment of breast cancer as well as in 2005 for the treatment of colorectal cancer.