According to an abstract presented at the meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, almost every patient enrolled in one small study had a complete response to chemoradiation with erlotinib (Tarceva) and cisplatin.
The trial involved a total of 38 patients with stage IIb to IIIb locally advanced cervical cancer. Two patients discontinued. Overall response among the remaining 36 patients was 100%, with complete responses in 34 of the 36 patients for a rate of 94%.
The 2-year overall survival (OS) of these patients was 91.7% and two-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 80.6%. At 36 months, OS and PFS were 80% and 73.8%, respectively.
Cisplatin-based chemoradiation is already the standard of care for this patient population, and has a 5 year disease-free survival of 68%.
The source reference for this study is here:
Rodrigues A et al. INCA-GYN001: Erlotinib added to cisplatin and definitive radiotherapy in untreated patients with locally advanced squamous cell cervical carcinoma -- A phase II trial and correlative tumor molecular profiling. SGO 2012; Abstract 1.
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