Adding Cetuximab to Chemoradiotherapy Worsens Outcome in Esophageal Cancer

Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is established as definitive treatment for adenocarcinoma and squamous cancer in medically inoperable patients. However, long-term survival with CRT rarely exceeds 25% to 35%.

U.K. investigators now report the results of the phase II/III, multicenter, randomized, open-label SCOPE1 trial, which evaluated the addition of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-blocking monoclonal antibody cetuximab to CRT in 258 patients with esophageal cancer selected for definitive CRT. Most patients had squamous cancer (71%–74%) and clinical stage III disease (60%).

Half of the patients received standard CRT: cisplatin (60 mg/m² on day 1) plus capecitabine (625 mg/m² orally twice daily for 21 days) for 2 cycles followed by the sam…