Jett

I wasn't in a clinical trial, but my regular insurance covered Erbitux & radiation with no questions since it is FDA approved for head and neck cancer. They still have not figured out a way to determine if you will be one of the lucky ones for whom Erbitux works, or get the short straw as I did. For colon cancer, they can tell which patients it will not work for by testing the KRAS gene.
Ironically, my quality of life (QOL) issues were much much worse with the Erbitux than with the carboplatin my RO switched me to after the cancer came back. Since the Erbitux wasn't inhibiting the tumor growth, it just prevented my facial and neck radiation dermatitis from healing by suppressing the Epidermal growth factor that would have given me new skin. If you do gamble on Erbitux, look for an acne rash as that indicates it's working. Skin peeling off your face is not the same and probably indicates its not working. I did not have any problems at all with the carboplatin.
It's a tough choice, and I did have a choice between Erbitux and cisplatin my first time around-so I feel for you. As Brian noted, the trial is to see if Erbitux works as well as cisplatin but as far as I know, Cisplatin works on everybody while Erbitux does not. I did not know that when I made my choice.
Charm