Anti-EGFR-Based Therapy in Recurrent or Metastatic HNSCC – What Difference Does it Make?

Abstract

Patients with R/M HNSCC treated with palliative first-line therapy at Hannover Medical School between October 2005 and December 2016 have been included to show changes in survival following broad utilization of cetuximab. Treatment periods were defined from 10/2005 to 12/2008 (Period A) and 01/2009 to 12/2016. Overall survival did not improve over time. However, in subgroup analysis cetuximab utilized at any time vs. never showed a significant improve of overall survival (11.3 vs. 6.3 months, HR: 0.55, 95%-CI: 0.4–0.8, p = 0.04). Therefore, this study supports the application of cetuximab in this real-world population.

Keywords:

• Anti-EGFR
• cetuximab
• head and neck cancer
• treatment
• R/M-HNSCC

Author contributions

HE: validation, fromal analysis, Writing – original draft, writing review & editing, LH: data curation, formal analysis, visualization, writing – original draft, methodology, investigation, AG: writing – review & editing, resources, VG: conceptualization, writing – review & editing, RM: writing – review & editing, AW: writing – review & editing, MD: writing – review & editing, PI: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing – review & editing.

Declaration of interest

Conflict of interest: HE: Travel grants by Ipsen, Honoraria by Merck. VG: Honoraria from BMS, Novartis and Pfizer. Fees as an advisor and speaker from BMS, Novartis, Pfizer and Bayer. PI: Advisory and speaker fees from Apogepha, BMS, Bayer, Böhringer Ingelheim, ClinSol, DKG-Onkoweb, Dicephera, EISAI, EMD Serono, H5Oncology, Ipsen, Merck, MSD, Metaplan, Onkowissen, Pfizer, Roche, Apogepha, Arbeitsgemeinschaft interdisziplinäre Medizin, Astellas, AstaZeneca, BMS, Bayer, DKG-Onkoweb, EISAI, EUSA, Forum für medizinische Fortbildung, GSK, Id-Institut, Ipsen, Merck, MSD, MedKom, MedLearning, MTE-Acadamy, MedWiss, MSGO, New Concept Oncology, Onkowissen Pfizer, PharmaMare, Roche, SchmitzCommunication, StreamedUP!, Solution Acadamy, ThinkWired! Vivantis; other financial relationships with BMS, Bayer, Merck, Pharmamare, BB-Biotech. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Data availability statement

Data available on request from the authors.