Cetuximab Therapy for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma A Systematic Review of the Data

Objective. To review the current state of the data on the use of cetuximab in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).Data Sources. The National Center for Biotechnology Information’s PubMed and the Cochrane collection.Review Methods. Search terms included cetuximab and head and neck cancer. These results were reviewed, and a second search was performed using limits: meta-analysis, randomized controlled trial, and clinical trial.Results. The literature search yielded 412 articles. Fifteen were identified for analysis. For patients with recurrent/metastatic disease who received combination chemotherapy in phase I/II trials, the overall response (OR) was 18.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.4%-27.0%). Phase III trial data for combination chemotherapy in recurrent/metastatic disease showed OR to be 17.0% (95% CI, 12.6%-21.4%) for platinum-based regimens and 34.2% (28.6%-39.7%) for platinum-based regimens with cetuximab. For this same group, the estimated aggregate hazard ratio comparing platinum-bas...