A new technique could improve treatment for women with cervical cancer, researchers have reported.
Cervical cancer is the third most diagnosed cancer in women, and patients in the developing world have worse outcomes due to shortages of screening and prevention measures.
When it is available, treatment for the condition is usually surgery and/or radiotherapy. But such techniques are not widely available in the developing world. So Researchers at Wolverhampton University, UK, investigated the use of an intravaginal ring to deliver a chemotherapeutic drug directly to the cervix.
In the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, they write: "This has the potential to reduce the need for surgical intervention and will also provide a novel anti-cancer therapy for women in low resource settings."
The device contains the drug disulfiram and releases it to the cervix in a "controlled and sustained manner". It has the potential to prevent surgery, say the team, led by Dr Chris McConville.
"The location of the cervix allows for non-invasive localised delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs directly to the cervix," said Dr McConville. "This allows for a lower dose to be delivered and reduces the side effects when compared to administration through the bloodstream."
He believes this approach will be useful as part of fertility-sparing treatment, and allows for smaller cancers and thus bigger cancer free margins to be removed. "Cancer free margins are areas of normal tissue surrounding the cancer where no cancer cells are present," he explains. "The bigger the cancer free margin, the less chance there is any cancer cells left behind and thus the risk of the cancer returning is significantly reduced."
Boyd, P. et al. Development of disulfiram-loaded vaginal rings for the localised treatment of cervical cancer. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics 13 August 2014 doi: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2014.08.002
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