Dr. Ciccolini on Residual Concentrations of Cetuximab in Head and Neck Cancer

Joseph Ciccolini, PhD, assistant professor in Pharmocokinetics, Aix-Marseille University, discusses residual concentrations of cetuximab (Erbitux) in patients with head and neck cancer.

There have been tools to improve the way existing treatments work for patients with head and neck cancer, explains Ciccolini. To achieve this, changes were made with the doses or the scheduling of the sequences to improve the efficacy or limit the toxicity.

When this was done with cetuximab, approximately 50% of patients did not see improvements, simply because the drug exposure was not sufficient enough for treatment.