Trial reportJournal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology2025
Postoperative Radiotherapy ± Cetuximab for Intermediate-Risk Head and Neck Cancer.
Trial report in Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Randomized Controlled Trials Comparing the Standard of Care to Alternative Treatments in Patients with Resectable Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Literature Review.Advances in therapy · 2026Pooled it
- SEOM-TTCC clinical guidelines for the treatment of head and neck cancer (2025).Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026Guideline
- Re-examining post-operative chemoradiotherapy in head and neck cancer: an updated long-term combined analysis of RTOG 9501/EORTC 22931.Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology · 2025Trial
- The efficacy of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with or without nimotuzumab in high-risk patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma post-surgery: A real-world study.Precision radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Engineering the tumor immune landscape: Translating non-invasive physical stimulation into tumor-associated macrophage-targeted cancer immunotherapy.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2026Review
- Transmembrane protein 9 as a novel biomarker promotes oral squamous cell carcinoma growth via IL1RN and serves as an immune therapeutic target.Translational cancer research · 2026Article
- Revisiting the grand challenges in oral cancers: advances in biomarkers and treatment strategies.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Article
- Establishment of a patient-derived drug-resistant oral squamous cell carcinoma animal model.Animal models and experimental medicine · 2025Article
- Does severe mucositis impair oncological outcome in head and neck cancer patients? A pooled analysis of two prospective studies with long-term follow-up.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- The Potential Role of Bio Extra Virgin Olive Oil (BEVOO) in Recovery from HPV 16-Induced Tonsil Cancer: An Exploratory Case Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Intensifying adjuvant therapy in intermediate-risk head and neck cancer: navigating the gray zone, selecting the right patient.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
30 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeRadiotherapy (RT)/cetuximab (C) demonstrated superiority over RT alone for locally advanced squamous head and neck cancer. We tested this in completely resected, intermediate-risk cancer.
methodsPatients had squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) of the oral cavity, oropharynx, or larynx, with one or more risk factors warranting postoperative RT. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to intensity-modulated RT (60-66 Gy) with once-per-week C or RT alone. The primary hypothesis was that RT + C would improve overall survival (OS) in randomly assigned/eligible patients, with a prespecified secondary plan to test this in the human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative subpopulation. Disease-free survival (DFS) and toxicity were secondary end points. OS and DFS were tested via stratified log-rank test; toxicity was compared via Fisher's exact test.
resultsWe enrolled 702 patients from November 2009 to March 2018; 577 were randomly assigned/eligible. Most (63.6%) had oral cavity cancer and most (84.6%) had high epidermal growth factor receptor expression. There were fewer deaths (184) than expected. OS (median follow up, 7.2 years) was not significantly improved (hazard ratio [HR], 0.81; one-sided
conclusionRT + C significantly improved DFS, but not OS, with no increase in long-term toxicity, compared with RT alone for resected, intermediate-risk SCCHN. RT + C is an appropriate option for carefully selected patients with HPV-negative disease.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.