Erbitux has been recognised by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for the second year running as a major advance in cancer treatment.
Merck Serono’s cancer drug Erbitux (cetuximab) was selected by ASCO for providing the first significant increase in survival for 30 years in the treatment of patients with first line recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).
The acknowledgment coincides with the Lancet Oncology publication of long-term survival data for Erbitux in locally advanced SCCHN, demonstrating that half of patients were alive at five years.
The ASCO report ‘Clinical Cancer Advances 2009: Major Research Advances in Cancer Treatment, Prevention and Screening’, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is an independent assessment of the most significant clinical cancer research studies of the past year.
Erbitux was singled out for the SCCHN study, EXTREME, the first randomised trial in 30 years to identify a regimen that increases survival for patients with recurrent and/or metastatic SCCHN.
The report commented: “The ability to improve overall survival with chemotherapy has proven elusive over the last 30 years in several randomized trials comparing different chemotherapy regimens in this setting. Thus, the results of this [EXTREME] trial are particularly noteworthy and are changing clinical practice.”
In 2008, Erbitux was recognised for extending survival in the first line treatment of NSCLC and for the role of K-RAS tumour status in predicting whether patients with newly diagnosed metastatic colorectal cancer will respond to Erbitux.
“Merck Serono is honored that Erbitux is recognised by ASCO two years in a row, and across three different disease areas – colorectal cancer, lung cancer and now head and neck cancer – as a major clinical advance,” said Dr Wolfgang Wein, Executive Vice President, Oncology, Merck Serono. “This latest acknowledgement from ASCO is a tribute to the role Erbitux now plays as a gold standard therapy in first line recurrent and/or metastatic SCCHN.”