title: Cetuximab as salvage monotherapy in chemotherapy-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer: A single-center report.
abstract: In July 2008, cetuximab, a monoclonal antibody against epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), was approved in Japan for clinical use against chemotherapy-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). At Shiga University of Medical Science, between December 2007 and April 2012, a total of 24 EGFR-positive mCRC cases were administered immunohistochemistry with cetuximab as salvage monotherapy. The safety, side-effects and clinical efficacy of the treatment, including response rate, time to treatment failure, progression-free and overall survival, K-ras mutation status and impact on outcome, were investigated. The patient tumor growth control rate (TCR) was 38%, the mean time to progression (TTP) was 9.8 weeks [95% confidence interval (CI), 7.2-12.4] and the mean overall survival (OS) was 49.4 weeks (95% CI, 30.1-68.8). The most common adverse reactions reported were skin reactions, including acne (67%), hand-foot syndrome (16.7%) and paronychia (16.7%), followed by hypocalcemia (50%), hypomagnesemia (16%), stomatitis (20%) and gastrointestinal disorders (12%). The results of the present single-center study demonstrated that cetuximab monotherapy is beneficial for the treatment of chemotherapy-refractory patients with mCRC and that it has an acceptable level of safety and manageable side-effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mekata
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: Hiromichi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sonoda
authors.forename: Tomoharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Umeda
authors.forename: Hisanori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shiomi
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naka
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Murata
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Tohru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tani
keywords: cetuximab; epidermal gowth factor receptor; metastatic colorectal cancer; refractory; salvage treatment