Chemotherapy Before Chemo-Radiotherapy Boosts Cervical Cancer Survival
Cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women and the 4th most common cause of death from cancer among women. January was cervical cancer awareness month, and new research has reported that locally advanced cervical cancer patients who were treated with induction chemotherapy immediately prior to their standard-of-care chemoradiotherapy (CRT) lived longer than those randomized to chemoradiation alone.
The research from the phase III GCIG INTERLACE study was reported at the ESMO Congress 2023 (Ann of Oncol 2023; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2023.10.028).
In the study, 500 patients with locally advanced cervical cancer were randomized to receive either induction treatment consisting of carboplatin and paclitaxel given for 6 weeks prior to the standard CRT, or the standard CRT alone. The induction treatment arm gave statistically significant benefits in progression-free survival and overall survival.
It is significant that addition of induction treatment to the standard CRT brought these remarkable results with 9 percent improvement in the progression-free survival rate, as well as 8 percent improvement in the overall survival rate in women with locally advanced cervical cancer. This is an important study to bring more hope to these women out of which many are still young.
READ THE ARTICLE – https://journals.lww.com/oncology-times/fulltext/2024/02000/chemo_before_chemo_radiotherapy_boosts_cervical.18.aspx