Changes in Blood Magnesium Levels Predict Response to Erbitux

Hypomagnesemia, or reduced magnesium levels, is a side effect of Erbitux® (cetuximab) treatment.  Patients with colorectal cancer whose blood magnesium dropped the fastest also had the best response to Erbitux given with Camptosar® (irinotecan) .

Italian researchers measured magnesium levels for 68 patients before treatment began and then 6 hours, 1 7, 14, 21, 50, and 92 days later.  After the seventh day, readings decreased consistently.

Magnesium levels fell at least 20 percent for 25 patients by the third week.  More of these patients responded to treatment, they lived longer before their cancer got worse and had longer overall survival. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on July 6th, 2008
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | No Comments »
Tags: colorectal cancer prognosis, Erbitux, personalized medicine

KRAS Mutation Status Predicts Response to Erbitux in Canadian Study

Another study has shown that colon or rectal cancer patients whose tumors have mutated KRAS don’t benefit from Erbitux® (cetuximab).  However, in the study when only patients with normal or wild-type KRAS were considered, survival time almost doubled after treatment with Erbitux began. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on July 1st, 2008
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | 2 Comments »
Tags: Erbitux, KRAS, metastatic colorectal cancer, survival benefit