Cetuximab Plus Paclitaxel as First Line for Recurrent and/or Metastatic SCCHN: Real World Data.

Retrospective Study With Cetuximab Plus Paclitaxel as First Line for Recurrent and/or Metastatic SCCHN (Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck): Real World Data.

Retrospective observational study that aims to collect real world data on the cetuximab plus paclitaxel regimen as first line treatment for recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).

Assignment of a patient to a specific therapeutic strategy has been already decided in the past according to normal routine clinical practice; the decision to prescribe a specific treatment (between January 2012 and December 2018) was clearly dissociated from the decision to include a patient in the present study.

The investigators will retrospectively collect the information for 500 patients diagnosed with recurrent and/or metastatic SCCHN treated with a cetuximab plus paclitaxel regimen as first line for unresectable recurrent and/or metastatic disease, starting treatment with the defined cetuximab plus paclitaxel regimen, in 20 hospital members of the "Grupo Español de Tratamiento de Tumores de Cabeza y Cuello (TTCC)", who express consent to participate in the study or have not explicitly withheld consent for use of their data. The information from the patients' medical records will be collected through the online database of the TTCC Group.

Retrospective observational study that aims to collect real world data on the cetuximab plus paclitaxel regimen as first line treatment for recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) with the restriction that the data collection will only be clinical data from patients who received paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 as a starting dose with weekly cetuximab that could have been switched to biweekly during the maintenance phase.

The main objective will be to estimate the Progression-free survival (PFS) in patients treated with paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 as a starting dose, with weekly cetuximab that could have been switched to biweekly during the maintenance phase, as first line for recurrent and/or metastatic SCCHN.

Secondary objectives include:

To determine the Overall Response Rate (ORR), Best Overall Response (BOR), Disease Control Rate (DCR), overall survival (OS), duration of response (DoR), and safety in patients treated with the defined cetuximab plus paclitaxel regimen.

To evaluate the percentage of long disease-free survivors (defined as patients disease-free and alive at 2 years), and evaluate the percentage of long non-disease-free survivors (defined as patients not disease free, but alive at 2 years.

Analyses of patient outcomes by prognostic subgroups.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients with histologically confirmed recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma including oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx and larynx.

Note: Histological confirmation is required at the diagnosis of the primary. Not for recurrence and/or metastatic stages when radiological or clinical confirmation is valid

• Patients who received at least one dose of both paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 as a starting dose with weekly cetuximab, that could have been switched to biweekly during the maintenance phase, as a first line regimen in recurrent and/or metastatic disease.

• Start of first cycle of paclitaxel plus cetuximab between 1 January 2012, and 31 December 2018.

• Aged ≥ 18 years at the time of diagnosis of R/M SCCHN.

• Voluntary written consent, if applicable*

  • Note: Waiver of consent could be acceptable after all reasonable efforts and procedures have been followed and exhausted, and when an explicit refusal to sign the informed consent or refusal for use of data, or a revocation of consent by the patient has not been obtained.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with histologically confirmed R/M SCCHN, who have also an unknown primary tumor or nasopharyngeal cancer or a non-squamous head & neck cancer.
• Patients who received the paclitaxel and cetuximab regimen for the first time in recurrent and/or metastatic disease as a second or subsequent line.
• Eastern Cooperative. Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status > 2.