Study of Panitumumab Efficacy in Patients With Recurrent and/or Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer

Inclusion criteria

• Man or woman at least 18 years old.
• Histologically or cytologically confirmed metastatic and/or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma (or its variants) of the head and neck.
• Diagnosis of metastatic disease and/or recurrent disease following locoregional therapy and determined to be incurable by surgery or radiotherapy.
• Subjects who have received radiation as primary therapy are eligible if locoregional recurrence is in the field of radiation and has occurred ≥6 months after the completion of radiation therapy. Subjects whose locoregional recurrence is solely outside the field of radiation are eligible if the recurrence has occurred ≥ 3 months after the completion of radiation therapy.
• Measurable and non-measurable disease.
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1.

Exclusion criteria

• History or known presence of Central Nervous System (CNS) metastases.
• History of another primary cancer, except: curatively treated in situ cervical cancer, or curatively resected non-melanoma skin cancer, or other primary solid tumor curatively treated with no known active disease present and no treatment administered for ≥ 2 years before randomization.
• Nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
• Prior systemic treatment for metastatic and/or recurrent SCCHN
• Prior cisplatin containing induction chemotherapy followed by cisplatin containing chemoradiotherapy
• Prior anti-EGFr (Epidermal growth factor receptor) antibody therapy or treatment with small molecule EGFr inhibitors
• Clinically significant cardiovascular disease (including myocardial infarction, unstable angina, symptomatic congestive heart failure, serious uncontrolled cardiac arrhythmia) less than or equal to 1 year prior to randomization. History of interstitial lung disease (eg, pneumonitis or pulmonary fibrosis) or evidence of interstitial lung disease on baseline chest computerized tomography (CT) scan.
• Symptomatic peripheral neuropathy grade ≥ 2 based on the CTCAE v3.0
• Grade ≥ 3 hearing loss based on the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) v3.0 Auditory/Ear (Hearing [without monitoring program])