Targeting the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide, a new treatment regimen combining chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy has reduced mortality rates by 40%.
Cervical cancer affects more than 300,000 women worldwide and the regimen has been described as “remarkable” – “the greatest survival gain since the adoption of chemoradiotherapy in 1999”.
These are the words of Dr Mary McCormack, the principal investigator of the trial at University College London.
The trial of the new treatment plan was conducted over 10 years and enrolled patients in Italy, Brazil, the United States, India and Mexico. This was a short course of traditional chemotherapy before chemoradiotherapy, the standard treatment for cervical cancer combining chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Although it may not seem like much, this small reorganization reduced cervical cancer death rates by 40% and cancer recurrence rates by 35% over a five-year time horizon.
Called the Interlace trial, it was funded by Cancer Research UK and the UCL Cancer Trials Centre. 500 women were given the choice between the new treatment plan and a standard plan. They all had advanced, localized cervical cancer that had not spread to other organs.
After five years, 80% of those who received chemoradiotherapy that began with this short course of chemotherapy were alive, and 72% of women had neither relapsed nor seen their cancer spread.
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Cervical cancer is particularly serious because it typically affects women in their 30s and has a high recurrence rate.
The new treatment uses drugs that are both inexpensive and already approved for use worldwide.
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“Simply adding induction chemotherapy to the start of chemoradiotherapy treatment for cervical cancer has shown remarkable results,” said Dr. Iain Foulkes, Executive Director of Research and Development. innovation at Cancer Research UK.
“There is growing evidence that additional chemotherapy before other treatments, such as surgery and radiotherapy, can improve the chances of treatment success for patients. Not only can it reduce the chances of cancer returning, but it can also be administered quickly, using drugs already available around the world.
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