Scientists believe they have made the biggest advance in the treatment of cervical cancer in 20 years using a set of cheap drugs that are already available before radiotherapy treatment.
Study results revealed at the ESMO medical conference show that the new approach reduced the risk of women dying from the disease by 35%.
Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, called the results “remarkable” and hopes clinics will soon adopt the treatment.
Cervical cancer affects thousands of women every year in the UK, many of them in their 30s. Despite advances in radiotherapy treatments, cancer recurs in up to a third of cases, making new approaches very necessary.
“Timing is everything when you are treating cancer,” said Dr Iain Foulkes of Cancer Research UK.
“A growing body of evidence has shown the value of additional chemotherapy sessions before other treatments, such as surgery and radiotherapy, in several other types of cancer. It can not only reduce the chances of the cancer coming back, but it can be started quickly, with medicines already available around the world,” he added.
“We are excited about the improvements this study can bring to the treatment of cervical cancer and hope that short sessions of induction chemotherapy will be quickly adopted into clinical practice,” concluded Dr. Foulkes.
For the study, 250 women with cervical cancer received the new treatment – an intensive six-week course of chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by the “usual” radiotherapy treatment of weekly cisplatin and brachytherapy, known as chemoradiation.
Another 250 women – the control group – received just the usual chemoradiation.
Five years later, 80% of women who received the new treatment were alive and in 73% the cancer had not returned or spread.
By comparison, in the “usual” treatment group, 72% were alive and 64% had not seen the cancer return or spread.
Dr Mary McCormack, lead researcher on the study from UCL Cancer Institute and UCLH, said: “Our study shows that this short course of additional chemotherapy given just before standard CRT can reduce the risk of the cancer returning or death by 35%.
“This is the biggest advance in the treatment of this disease in more than 20 years,” she told the BBC’s Today radio program.
“The important thing here is that if patients are alive and well, with no cancer returning within five years, they are very likely to be cured, which is what makes this very exciting,” he added.
Given that both chemotherapy drugs are cheap, accessible and already approved for use in patients, experts believe they could become the new standard of care relatively quickly.
They caution, however, that not all women with cervical cancer are likely to experience the same positive results. In many of the women who participated in the study, the cancer had not yet started to spread to other parts of the body. It’s unclear how well the therapy would work for women with more advanced disease.
Medications can also cause unwanted side effects, including feeling sick or nausea and hair loss.