Cetuximab [CET3]

Cetuximab in combination with chemotherapy for the first cytotoxic- containing treatment of recurrent/metastatic squamous cell cancer of the head and neck only originating in the oral cavity where the following criteria are met:

1. An application has been made and the first cycle of systemic anti -cancer therapy will be prescribed by a consultant specialist specifically trained and accredited in the use of systemic anti-cancer therapy.
2. The patient has a confirmed histological diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma. 3.The patient has a primary tumour that originated in the oral cavity.
3. The patient has recurrent and/or metastatic disease.
4. The patient has not received any previous cytotoxic chemotherapy for this recurrent/metastatic oral cavity tumour unless it was part of multimodality treatment for locally advanced disease and was completed more than 6 months previously.
5. The patient has not received any systemic therapy for this recurrent/metastatic oral cavity tumour or the only systemic therapy for this recurrent/metastatic oral cavity tumour has been with pembrolizumab monotherapy.
6. The treatment will be given with palliative intent.
7. Cetuximab is to only be used in combination with a maximum of 6 cycles of platinum-based combination chemotherapy followed by single agent cetuximab as maintenance therapy.
8. The patient has received no previous treatment with cetuximab for head and neck cancer.
9. The patient has an ECOG performance status of 0 or 1.
10. Cetuximab is to be continued until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity or patient choice to stop treatment, whichever is the sooner.
11. When a treatment break of more than 6 weeks beyond the expected 3- or 4-weekly cycle length is needed, a treatment break approval from will be completed to restart treatment.
12. Consideration has been to be given to administration of cetuximab 500mg/m² every 2 weeks (e.g. if chemotherapy is scheduled on a 4 week cycle or during the maintenance phase of single agent cetuximab therapy).
13. Cetuximab will be otherwise used as set out in its Summary of Product Characteristics.

NHS funded From: 31 August 2017

Additional information

Form version: V1.1

CDF Managed Access: NA

NICE Technology Appraisal: TA473 (31 August 2017)

Current Form Version

Note

The data on this page was produced using version 1.375 of the CDF list, downloaded from NHS England’s website on 09 October 2025 at 18:00.

If NHS England has published a new version of the CDF List but this site has not yet accessed that, this form may be out of date. Additionally, if any update has occurred without NHS England noting it as a change, this page will be out of date.