Multicenter phase II study combining panitumumab with chemoradiation followed by surgery for patients with operable esophageal cancer (PACT-study).

4094 Background: A consistent finding in many studies in patients with operable esophageal and gastro-esophageal junction cancer is that response to preoperative therapy, particularly the absence of residual disease in the surgical specimen, is an indicator of better disease-free and overall survival. One of the potential strategies to improve these local effects of preoperative chemoradiation (CRT) is the concurrent inhibition of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Therefore in our trial we evaluated the pathologic response of panitumumab in combination with neoadjuvant CRT as first line treatment of operable adenocarcinomas or squamous cell carcinomas of the esophagus. Methods: Patients with resectable cT1N1M0 or cT2-3N0-2M0 tumors received preoperative CRT consisting of 3 administrations of panitumumab (6mg/kg) in weeks 1-3-5, weekly administrations of carboplatin (AUC = 2) and paclitaxel (50 mg·m2) for 5 weeks and concurrent radiotherapy (41.4 Gy in 23 fractions, 5 days per week) followed by ...