Cetuximab monotherapy is the standard of care for platinum-resistant non-HPV related metastatic head and neck cancer; however, response and survival rates for this treatment are extremely poor. In this video, recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2018 Annual Meeting, in Chicago, IL, Douglas Adkins, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, explains that such cancers are driven by CDK4/6 activation through p16 inhibition. He uses this information as a rationale to support his recent clinical trial (NCT02101034), which combined the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib with cetuximab. The data from this study are promising, with progression-free and overall survival rates doubling in comparison to the standard of care, and tumor response rates trebling. He gives an overview of the future directions for this research, touching upon a Phase II randomized trial whose data will soon be released.
Palbociclib for platinum-resistant metastatic head and neck cancer
