2023-12-11 10:18:22
The results of the international study have been published in ‘The Lancet’ and included 410 patients with advanced metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer without having been treated.
Patients with metastatic, recurrent or persistent cervical cancer not amenable to surgery or radiotherapy have a very poor prognosis. The standard first-line treatment in this scenario is the combination of cisplatin/paclitaxel chemotherapy plus the antiangiogenic bevacizumab whose approval was based on the results of the GOG240 study with a median overall survival of 17 months and a progression-free survival of 8.2. months.
The BEATcc phase 3 clinical trial led by Ana Oaknin, head of the Gynecological Neoplasias Group at the VHIO, head of the Gynecological Tumors Program at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and researcher at the Spanish Ovarian Cancer Research Group (Geico) compares the results of adding the drug atezolizumab, a PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, to standard treatment that combines bevacizumab (a drug directed against angiogenesis, the formation of blood vessels that allows tumor cells to nourish and proliferate) with chemotherapy with the results of the standard regimen.
This international trial, whose results have been published in The Lancet, included 410 patients with advanced metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer who had not been previously treated and who were not susceptible to being treated with surgery or radiotherapy.
After a median of 35 months of follow-up of the patients included in the trial, the median overall survival of patients treated with immunotherapy plus standard treatment was 32.1 months compared to 22.8 months in patients treated with immunotherapy alone. the standard treatment.
A highly significant improvement, explains Oaknin: “In the GOG240 study that served as the basis for approving the current standard treatment, less than 40% of patients survived two years. However, in the BEATcc trial, 60% of patients who received immunotherapy along with bevacizumab and chemotherapy treatment were alive at two years.”
Results from the BEATcc trial also showed significant improvements in progression-free survival (the time it takes for the tumor to grow back after starting treatment), which was 13.7 months in patients treated with the experimental combination versus at 10.4 months for patients who received the standard combination.
The BEATcc trial is the first to study adding an anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy drug to the standard regimen based on bevacizumab (mandatory for all patients) and platinum-based chemotherapy.
“In conclusion – says Ana Oaknin – adding immunotherapy, in this case the anti-PD-L1 atezolizumab, to the standard treatment based on bevacizumab and chemotherapy, given the great impact it has on the overall survival of patients, should be considered a new option. of first-line treatment for patients with metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer after being approved by regulatory agencies.”
The results of the BEATcc trial, which are now published in the journal The Lancet, were initially selected as late-breaking data at the Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) held in Madrid between October 20 and 24 and have been presented by Ana Oaknin in the ESMO virtual plenary session on November 3. RV: LDB (SyM)
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