Hope over gynaecological cancer research findings

Several studies offer hope of significant advance in the care of gynaecological cancers, a major European conference has heard.

Results from a series of phase 3 clinical trials into gynaecological cancers have been presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress this week.

The findings from two cervical trials will show new ways of treating locally advanced cervical cancer that significantly delay relapse, giving women more time free of cancer.

In one study, 68% of women who received the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab on top of standard treatment were cancer-free at two years, compared to 57% of women allocated to placebo on top of standard treatment.

The second study to be presented at the Congress, which is being held in Madrid, Spain, tested the impact of induction chemotherapy, a combination of two different chemotherapy drugs ahead of standard treatment with chemotherapy plus radiation.

Women with locally advanced cervical cancer who received induction chemotherapy were 35% more likely to be cancer-free at five years and 39% more likely to be alive at five years compared to those who received standard treatment only.

A cervical cancer trial, which will be discussed, tested the novel therapy tisotumab vedotin in women who had already received treatment for their metastatic or relapsed cervical cancer. The drug, which combines an antibody and an anti-cancer drug, lengthened survival, delayed relapse, and more often caused tumour shrinkage compared with chemotherapy.

Two endometrial cancer trials will show that adding immunotherapy to standard chemotherapy treatment significantly delayed relapse of the cancer in women with advanced/recurrent endometrial cancer compared to chemotherapy alone.

Professor Krishnansu Tewari, director – gynaecologic oncology programme, University of California, Irvine, USA, said the results being presented at the ESMO Congress 2023 have a very good chance of leading to regulatory approval of new treatments.

“These are exciting results that address unmet needs in gynaecological cancers,” he said.

He added: “These trials have set the stage for women with gynaecological cancers to receive state-of-the-art therapies that delay the time to relapse, allowing women struggling with these cancers to live longer and live better.”

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