Statistics show this women's cancer previously took an average of 4,300 lives per year. Here's how new research is making an impact.
Death Risk from This Cancer Reduces 40% with New Treatment, a 10-Year Study Has Found
Published on Oct. 15, 2024
For those diagnosed with cervical cancer, new treatment breakthroughs can’t come soon enough. Now, a new study is offering hope to women diagnosed with locally advanced disease, having identified a treatment plan that cuts mortality risk by 40% with only minimal changes to the current standard of care.
The American Cancer Society says nearly 14,000 new cases of invasive cervical cancer are diagnosed annually in the U.S., and over 4,300 women die from the condition each year.
But now a team of researchers from University College London (UCL) has found that patients who received a short-course induction chemotherapy regimen, followed by chemoradiotherapy within seven days of completing the treatment’s first phase, had higher survival rates than those who completed chemoradiotherapy alone. The women treated with the two-pronged approach were also 35% less likely to experience a recurrence within the coming five years.
The study included 500 subjects, and spanned a total 10 years from 2012 to 2022. Half of the subjects were randomly assigned to receive chemoradiotherapy, while the other half received a combination therapy including both the induction chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy. The findings of the study were published in the trusted medical journal The Lancet on October 14.
“Short-course once-a-week induction dose-dense carboplatin and paclitaxel delivered immediately before chemoradiotherapy resulted in an 11 percentage point improvement in the progression-free survival rate and a 10 percentage point improvement in the overall survival rate at 5 years, which were clinically meaningful and statistically significant,” the team concluded. “This represents the first published substantial overall survival improvement among patients with locally advanced cervical cancer since concomitant cisplatin over two decades ago.”
The researchers say this marks a groundbreaking discovery—one that should permanently alter how doctors treat cervical cancer going forward. “It should now be considered a standard of care and be included in the design of future trials that explore the incorporation of new agents for the treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer,” the UCL team wrote.
The study also addressed “one long-standing concern” that may have prevented the use of induction chemotherapy in locally advanced cervical cancer until now. Doctors may have feared causing a “delay in the delivery of definitive chemoradiotherapy, with historical data suggesting a detrimental effect on outcome.”
However, the researchers say that their findings confirm statistically significant survival benefits for patients who first complete induction chemotherapy, even with a short delay. “The results presented should allay these concerns when using this specific weekly platinum dense regimen, especially as they are in keeping with findings of the first systematic review of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced cervical cancer and a subsequent updated review,” they write.
The researchers also found that metastatic relapses were more frequent in the chemoradiotherapy-only group, suggesting that induction chemotherapy could be especially effective at controlling the distant spread of cancer cells.
Getting the HPV vaccine can prevent cervical cancer with over 90% efficacy, making it the single best way to avoid ever developing the disease. Talk to your doctor to learn more about the vaccinations, screenings, and treatment options that are saving lives in the fight against cervical cancer.
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