You might also search under IMC-C225, which was its pre- FDA approval name. This is the drug that contributed to all the Imclone trouble for Martha Stewart. It's a EGFR inhibitor similar in action to Iressa (aka ZD-1839) There's a pretty informative article on the ACS website date May 2004. They're saying that it has shown some pretty remarkable result in conjunction with Radiation in some pretty small studies (15 subjects), but this is the second EGFR inhibitor I've read about showing these kind of results, the other being Iressa.

Chuck

Does anyone know if there is a test to determine if an individual is expressing EGF (?epidermal or epithelial growth factor) or has a tumor that has the receptors for it? It seems to me those are the tumors Erbitux would specifically hit.
nannygranny6

The data that they have acquired with Iressa, which also targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), is that it only works 10% of the time. 90% have no benefit. These studies were done with lung cancer patients (which it was designed for) with adenocarcinoma and only as a last resort after conventional forms of treatment have failed. It has shown very dramatic results in some patients. They are trying it with H&N patients. I have no idea of the success rates.

I called IMCLONE on this drug when I had my second dx in July 2001. I think they or the oncologist told me that the success rate for H&N patients was about 25% when combined with radiation. They had been running clinical trials at the time but they had just closed at Penn and I couldn't have more radiation so abandoned the idea. I opted for surgery. There had also been an article earlier in the year in the NY Times on the success of UC225, as it was called then, on its success in both cholorectal and H&N cancers.
I don't know what the recent trials have revealed.

Eileen