Biologic
RCSB PDB 1YY9
Cetuximab
Erbitux
- Mechanism of action
- EGFR antagonist (mAb)
- In plain language
- A lab-made antibody that clamps onto EGFR, a receptor on the surface of certain cancer cells, blocking the signal that tells those cells to keep growing and divide out of control.
- How it works
- Cetuximab is a recombinant human/mouse chimeric IgG1 monoclonal antibody that binds with high affinity to the extracellular domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) on both normal and tumor cells. By competitively blocking endogenous ligands such as EGF and TGF-alpha from binding, it prevents receptor dimerization and autophosphorylation, shutting down downstream kinase signaling cascades that drive proliferation. This leads to inhibition of tumor cell growth and induction of apoptosis. It is administered by intravenous infusion, typically combined with radiation or chemotherapy.
- Therapeutic applications
- Indicated for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, in combination with radiation for locally/regionally advanced disease or with chemotherapy for recurrent/metastatic disease; and for K-Ras wild-type, EGFR-expressing metastatic colorectal cancer, used with chemotherapy or, for BRAF V600E-mutant disease, in combination with encorafenib.
- Class
- Monoclonal antibody
- Therapeutic area
- Oncology
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