In 2004, strange things were happening when people living in the Southern United States received Erbitux, an anticancer drug. After Erbitux was approved, the first three patients that oncologist Bert O'Neil treated at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, had severe anaphylactic reactions. "One fell out of their chair," passing out as blood pressure plummeted. "It alarmed us."
"I was quite upset," says research oncologist Christine Chung, when her patient with head and neck cancer had a severe reaction to the drug. "This was a young man and a last ditch effort" to gain a little more time for this patient, who could no longer take the drug due to the reaction. He later died.
There is always a risk of these types of reactions, says David Mauro, a cancer researcher with Bristol-Myers Squibb, which markets Erbitux (cetuximab) in partnership with ImClone. "That we saw [the reactions] with Erbitux ...
