The small EVEREST trial has shown that the concept of guiding cetuximab dose escalation using the clinical parameter of acneiform skin rash is safe. However, as no significant increase of cetuximab efficacy could be observed, data from the ongoing EVEREST II trial must be awaited before dose escalation can be considered for clinical use.
Key Points
Higher doses of cetuximab are well tolerated and lead to increased grade ≥2 acneiform rashes; we await the results from the prospective EVEREST II trial, which will test whether patients with increased acneiform rash have longer overall survival
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S. Stintzing has received honoraria (speakers bureau) from the following companies: Amgen, Merck KGaA and Roche. H.-J. Lenz has received honoraria (speakers bureau) from and acted as a consultant for Merck KGaA.
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Stintzing, S., Lenz, HJ. Cetuximab dosing by rash—is the scaling of EVEREST meaningful?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 9, 554–556 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.142
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.142
