Regarding the insurance companies, the hospitals are being paid by the clinical trial per patient, so perhaps the charges would not be any more than the current standard of care. Erbitux is significantly more expensive than Cisplatin, but maybe the trial payments will even that out. I don't think the expectations from the trial are that the cure rate end point would be any better, as radiation is the big gun in all this, but that the collateral morbidity and QOL issues will be less. You have to remember that chemo in oral cancer is not curative, and is an adjunct to radiation. The mechanism of action of Erbitux which is a monoclonal antibody, and Cisplatin which is a systemic poison could not be more different.

David, someone has to fund millions for the study. Carbo has been out like Cisplatin for a long time and the manufacturer isn't going to invest any more into it. Erbitux is still a growing product/market so there is money from the companies involved in its sales and manufacture to put up the funds for the clinical trial. As to Carbo being equal to Cisplatin, there is no clinical trial that shows that it works equally well. Hence it is a fall back drug, not a first choice drug.