Cetuximab Outperforms Durvalumab for Head and Neck Cancer

December 19, 2024, by Edward Winstead The chemotherapy drug cisplatin, combined with radiation therapy, is a standard treatment for people newly diagnosed with locally advanced head and neck cancer. But about one-third of people with such cancers have other health conditions, such as hearing loss or kidney disease, that make them unable to receive the drug.It’s been unclear what the optimal treatment should be for these patients. And it’s an important question, because most people diagnosed with head and neck cancer have locally advanced disease—meaning their tumors are relatively large but haven’t spread to other parts of the body.New results from a clinical trial could help answer that question, according to the researchers who led the study. The NCI-supported trial compared two potential alternatives to cisplatin in nearly 200 people with locally advanced head and neck cancer.In the study, participants given the targeted drug cetuximab (Erbitux) along with radiation therapy had bett...