Incidence of cetuximab-related infusion reaction in head and neck cancer patients: may we predict it?

The combination of cisplatin and fluoruracil with cetuximab is the only regimen showing survival benefit in first-line therapy of relapsed-metastatic head and neck cancer (R-M HNC) in the past 30 years.1 Similarly, cetuximab is the only target agent significantly improves results of radiotherapy in locally advanced head and neck cancer (L-A HNC).2 Cetuximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody , can induce infusion reactions (IRs) that may be severe and life threatening.3 In clinical studies, severe IRs are uncommon.1 2 On the contrary, retrospective studies addressing this matter report higher incidence of severe IR.We must take into account that patients recruited into clinical studies join strict inclusion criteria and so they might poorly represent the real world population.4 In this issue of ESMO Open , Coloma et al 5 reports a large series of 428 patients treated in the real-world setting with either cetuximab in combination with radiotherapy for L-A HNC, or in combination with chemotherapy for …