Doctors are hailing a new treatment regime for cervical cancer that could reduce the risk of dying by 40%, in the biggest advance against the disease in 25 years. In research led by University College London, it has been reported that the results of the phase-three clinical trial showed a 40% reduction in the risk of death from the disease and a 35% reduction in the risk of cancer coming back within at least five years. Their findings have been published in the Lancet.
The new treatment plan was tested in patients recruited over 10 years from the UK, Mexico, India, Italy, and Brazil.
Dr Mary McCormack, the lead investigator of the trial at UCL, said “This is the biggest gain in survival since the adoption of chemoradiation in 1999”
“Every improvement in survival for a cancer patient is important, especially when the treatment is well-tolerated and given for a relatively short time, allowing women to get back to their normal lives relatively quickly.”
Researchers at UCL and University College London Hospital (UCLH) completed a long-term follow-up of patients who were given a short course of chemotherapy before chemoradiation.
The Interlace trial, funded by Cancer Research UK and UCL Cancer Trials Centre, looked at whether a short course of induction chemotherapy before chemoradiation could cut relapses and deaths among patients with locally advanced cervical cancer that had not spread to other organs.
The trial recruited 500 women who were randomly allocated to receive either the new treatment regime or the standard chemoradiation treatment. In the study, one group received the new regime of six weeks of carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy. This was followed by standard radiotherapy plus weekly cisplatin and brachytherapy chemotherapy, known as chemoradiation. The control group received only the usual chemoradiation.
After five years, 80% of those who received a short course of chemotherapy first were alive and for 72% their cancer had not returned nor spread. In the standard treatment group, 72% were alive and 64% had not had their cancer return or spread.
Reference: Induction chemotherapy followed by standard chemoradiotherapy versus standard chemoradiotherapy alone in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer (GCIG INTERLACE): an international, multicentre, randomised phase 3 trial McCormack, MaryReed, Nicholas et al.The Lancet, Volume 0, Issue 0
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