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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Laryngeal Carcinoma patients’ outcomes can be improved by adding Cetuximab to radiotherapy


Laryngeal preservation and laryngectomy-free survival of patients with hypopharyngeal or laryngeal carcinoma, can be improved by addition of cetuximab to radiotherapy according to a recent study published by  Bonner et al. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The authors examined the rates of laryngeal preservation and laryngectomy-free survival in a randomized trial involving patients with cancer of the larynx or hypopharynx. A total of 168 patients from 73 centers in the US and 14 other countries were randomized to cetuximab and radiotherapy (CRT; 90 patients) or radiotherapy alone (78 patients).


The researchers found the rates of laryngeal preservation (no need for laryngectomy) were 87.9 and 85.7% for CRT and radiotherapy alone, respectively, at two years. Median overall survival was 27 months in the CRT group and 21 months in the radiotherapy-alone group. There were no differences observed in overall quality of life, need for a feeding tube, or speech.