Clinical outcomes and prognostic factors in cisplatin versus cetuximab chemoradiation for locally advanced p16 positive oropharyngeal carcinoma

Definitive chemoradiation (CRT) is an effective organ-preserving treatment for locally advanced oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) [1,2]. As median survival times increase, reducing the often debilitating short and long-term morbidities associated with the standard concurrent cisplatin-based approach has become the focus of multiple clinical trials. This is especially true in patients with p16 positive (p16+) disease who are generally younger, healthier, and have higher treatment response rates [3]. One approach to toxicity reduction has been replacing cisplatin with the targeted systemic agent cetuximab, which is an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor.

Source: Oral Oncology - February 12, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Christian L. Barney, Steve Walston, Pedro Zamora, Erin H. Healy, Nicole Nolan, Virginia M. Diavolitsis, Anterpreet Neki, Robert Rupert, Panos Savvides, Amit Agrawal, Matthew Old, Enver Ozer, Ricardo Carrau, Stephen Kang, James Rocco, Theodoros Teknos, Joh Source Type: research