Efficacy and safety of weekly paclitaxel combined with cetuximab in the treatment of pretreated recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer patients.

5594 Background: The addition of cetuximab to weekly paclitaxel have shown high efficacy in the first-line treatment of patients with recurrent /metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (R/M-SCCHN). However, this combination has been widely extended to patients who present resistance to first line chemotherapy (CT) or those who are not candidate to platinum-based CT. Methods: We have retrospectively analyzed the efficacy of cetuximab in combination with weekly paclitaxel in patients with R/M-SCCHN who were not candidate to platinum-based CT or those who present disease progression after platinum schedules. Patients received weekly paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 and cetuximab 250 mg/m2 (initial dose of 400 mg/m2) till progression or unacceptable toxicity. Results: Twenty-one patients were included. Median age was 56 (43-72), ECOG PS (0/1/2): 6/10/5, 18 patients had received prior platinum-based treatment (9 patients were platinum-sensitive and 9 were platinum-refractory). With a median follow-up of 6.1...