This study was an in-depth look at outcomes from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006. That study showed that patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer who were given Erbitux in addition to radiation therapy, showed not only a survival benefit, but also that there was no increase in mucositis or dysphagia over patients who received radiation therapy alone.
This study compared the duration of these normal tissue toxicities between the two arms from the England Journal of Medicine study. For the overall group, the median duration of any mucositis or dysphagia was three months. Of the patients with mucositis, 28% experienced this toxicity for three months. Of those with dysphagia, 31.5% experienced this toxicity for three months. Fewer than 10% suffered from these toxicities for more than 15 weeks. These findings were similar for the two treatment arms.
“These findings are important because they show that the addition of this monoclonal antibody therapy has lifesaving benefits without any additional length of suffering from the primary acute side effects,” said James Bonner, radiation oncologist at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Merck KGaA, which holds the rights to Erbitux outside the US, has reported that its sales of the cancer treatment were up 55% in Q4, making the company $435.6 million.