March 2, 2006

Fda Approves Erbitux For Head And Neck Cancer

U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval to cetuximab (Erbitux) for the treatment of head and neck cancer. The drug is now approved for use in head and neck cancer in combination with radiation therapy (RT) for the treatment of locally or regionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The drug may also be used as a single agent for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic SCCHN for whom prior platinum-based therapy has failed.

Erbitux is already approved by FDA for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. This new approval for the treatment of head and neck cancer is based on a study which showed statistically significant improvement in overall survival and duration of locoregional disease control for the combination of radiation therapy with cetuximab when compared to radiation therapy alone. In a separate clinical trial cetuximab was found to be effective with durable objective tumor responses when administered as a single-agent in second- or third-line treatment of advanced SCCHN.

The FDA approval is mainly based on a phase 3 randomized trial of 424 patients with Stage III/IV SCC of the oropharynx, hypopharynx or larynx who had no prior therapy. Patients were randomized to receive either cetuximab plus RT (211 patients) or RT alone (213 patients). Cetuximab was administered as a 400 mg/m² initial dose, followed by 250 mg/m² weekly for the duration of RT(6-7 weeks), starting one week before RT. RT was administered for 6-7 weeks as once daily, twice daily or concomitant boost.

The median survival time was 49 months on the cetuximab plus RT versus 29.3 months observed in patients receiving RT alone. The median duration of locoregional control was 24.4 months in patients receiving cetuximab plus RT versus 14.9 months for those receiving RT alone. The observed effect was primarily confined to patients enrolled in sites in the US.


Janet      

Do You Read All Of Our Cancer Blogs?

Do you read all of the blogs published by medicineworld.org? Many of our bloggers are busy keeping you updated on the various health related topics. We publish the following blogs at this time.

Cancer blog: I manage the cancer blog with lots of help and support form other bloggers. Through this cancer blog my friends and I try to bring stories of hope for patients with cancer. The cancer blog often republishes important blog posts from other cancer related blogs at Medicineworld.org. If you are searching for a blog that covers wide variety of cancer topics, this may be the one for you.

Breast cancer blog: Breast cancer blog is run by Emily and other bloggers and they bring you the latest stories, news and events that are related to breast cancer. Increasing awareness about breast cancer among women and in the general population is the main goal of this breast cancer blog.

Lung cancer blog: Lung cancer blog is managed by Scott with the help of other bloggers. Through this blog Scott and his friends constantly remind the readers about the dangers of smoking. It's a never-ending struggle against this miserable disease with which a social stigma of smoking is associated.

Colon cancer blog: Colon cancer blog is run by Sue and other bloggers. Sue brings a personal touch to the colon cancer blog since her mother died of colon cancer few years ago. She writes about stories, research news and advances in treatment related to colon cancer.

Prostate cancer blog: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men. American Cancer Society estimates that over 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer occur in the United state every year. This important blog about prostate cancer is run by Mark and other bloggers. This blog brings news, stories, and other personal observations related to prostate cancer.

Medicineworld.org publishes a diabetes watch blog and this blog is run by JoAnn other bloggers. This diabetes watch blog brings you the latest in the field of diabetes. This includes personal stories, advances in diagnosis and treatment, and other observations about diabetes. Improving awareness about diabetes is an important mission of this group.

Janet      

Cancer
Cancer is a very common disease, approximately one out of every two American men and one out of every three American women will have some type of cancer at some point during the course of their life. Cancer is more common in the elderly and 77 percent of cancers occur in people above age 55 or older. Cancer is also common in children. Cancer incidence is said to have two peaks once during early childhood and then during late years in life. No age period is completely exempted from development of cancers. Some cancers occur predominantly in the elderly, other types occur in children, Cancer occurs in all ethnic races, however the cancer rates and rates of specific cancer types may vary from group to group. Late stages of cancer may be incurable in most cases, but with the advancement of medicine, more and more cancers are becoming curable.