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FRIDAY, Oct. 26, 2018 (HealthDay News) — For patients with locoregionally advanced human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharynx cancer, radiation\/cetuximab results in inferior overall and progression-free survival versus radiation\/cisplatin, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, held Oct. 21 to 24 in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n
Andy Trotti, M.D., from the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, and colleagues randomly assigned 805 eligible patients with locoregionally advanced HPV-related oropharynx cancer to 70 Gy accelerated (six fractions\/week) with two cycles of cisplatin every three weeks versus the same radiation with weekly cetuximab.<\/p>\n
The researchers found a hazard ratio of 1.45 for overall survival. The estimated five-year survival rates were 84.6 percent with cisplatin and 77.9 percent with cetuximab. For progression-free survival, the five-year estimates were 78.4 and 67.3 percent for cisplatin and cetuximab, respectively (hazard ratio, 1.72). For estimated five-year local-regional failure, the rates were 9.9 percent with cisplatin and 17.3 percent with cetuximab; distant metastases rates were 8.6 and 11.7 percent, respectively. Acute grade 3 to 4\/grade 5 adverse events were 82\/0.8 percent with cisplatin, and 77\/1.3 percent with cetuximab. Anemia, hearing loss, nausea, vomiting, neutropenia, and kidney injury were more common with cisplatin, while rash was more common with cetuximab.<\/p>\n
“We had hypothesized that survival with cetuximab might be very close (within 5 percent) to that of cisplatin,” Trotti said in a statement, “but that was not the case.”<\/p>\n
The study was partially funded by Eli Lilly.<\/p>\n
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