Pioneering therapy cuts risk of cervical cancer by up to 35%

Cervical cancer patients who receive an initial course of drugs before their standard treatment are a third less likely to die or have the disease return, a study has found.

Chemoradiation – receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy simultaneously – has been the standard treatment since 1999, but despite improved techniques, cancer returns in up to 30 percent of cases.

A team from University College London recruited 500 patients to take part in a ten-year study.

They all had cervical cancer that was large enough to be seen without a microscope, but had not spread.

Most cases of cervical cancer occur in women in their early 30s, with around 3,200 new diagnoses each year in Britain (stock photo)

Each participant received standard chemoradiation treatment, but some first received a course of induction chemotherapy.

The intensive treatment, which uses drugs to destroy as many cancer cells as possible, maximizing the benefit of chemoradiation, has been associated with certain risks and may not be suitable for everyone.

But initial analysis found that after five years, 80 percent of those who had had both treatments were still alive and 73 percent had not seen the cancer return or spread.

In the standard treatment group, 72 percent were still alive and 64 percent had not seen the cancer return or spread.

Dr. Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, praised the ‘remarkable results’ (stock photo)

Dr. Mary McCormack, lead researcher on the study, said: ‘Our study shows that this short course of adjuvant chemotherapy, given immediately before standard CRT, can reduce the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 35 percent. This is the biggest improvement in the outcome of this disease in more than two decades.”

Most cases of cervical cancer occur in women in their early 30s, with around 3,200 new diagnoses each year in Britain.

According to Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, the five-year survival rate for cervical cancer is around 70 percent.

Because the drugs needed for induction chemotherapy – carboplatin and paclitaxel – are cheap, accessible and already approved for use in patients, the researchers said they could be incorporated into standard treatment relatively quickly.

Dr. Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, praised the “remarkable results”.

He said: ‘Timing is everything when you’re treating cancer.

‘Not only can it reduce the chance of cancer coming back, it can also be delivered quickly using medicines already available worldwide.’