A Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy of Poziotinib, Pan HER Inhibitor in Recurrent/Metastatic Esophageal Cancer (R/M ESCC)

Esophageal cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Esophageal adenocarcinoma has become more common in Western countries. In many Asian countries, however, Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC) represents the most common esophageal cancer. In palliative chemotherapy for metastatic or recurrent ESCC, A combination of 5-fluorouracil and platinum was prescribed as a standard treatment for about 20 years. With this traditional regimen, the median progression free survival is approximately 7 months, and 1-year survival rate is reported to be 34%. Combinations of taxane and anthracycline are also considerable, but also shows the median survival less than one year. Though cytotoxic chemotherapy is current main treatment option, molecularly targeted agents are recently incorporated to improve survival in ESCC. There is a strong rationale for investigation of biologic agents targeting Epithelial Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) family in ESCC. EGFR is frequently overexpressed in esophageal cancer and is known to be associated with poor prognosis. Several EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been studied in esophageal cancer subjects and have shown clinical effects. In a recent Phase II trial using dacomitinib, pan-human epidermal growth receptor TKI, Partial response was observed in 10 of the 49 esophageal cancer subjects, with a response rate of 20.8%. Based on notable rationale in exploring impact of EGFR inhibition, we suggest multicenter phase II study to determine antitumor activity and safety of a other potent pan-HER inhibitor, Poziotinib in Esophageal Squamous cell carcinoma.