Cancer News
Postop chemo could prevent recurrence of most common kidney cancer
Pembrolizumab could become goldstandard treatment after surgery
An immunotherapy after surgery can significantly improve survival for patients with the most common type of kidney cancer . A thirdphase study found that the drug pembrolizumab could offer an effective treatment for patients suffering from clear cell renal carcinoma who have few alternative options . This type of cancer can be clearly seen in a microscope and occurs when cells in the kidney quickly increase in number , creating a lump or mass .
Pembrolizumab , an immunotherapy agent that belongs to a class of therapies known as checkpoint inhibitors , improves the immune system ’ s response to tumour cells by blocking the PD1 protein on their surface .
�ecause targeting PD1 has proven to be effective and safe for treatment , the researchers investigated it as a new target to prevent the disease from recurring following surgery .
Kidney cancer is common in both men and women . Most patients are first diagnosed with local disease , but up to 40 percent develop metastatic disease following surgery , meaning the disease has spread .
Surgical removal of the tumour or the entire kidney by radical nephrectomy is commonly used to treat the cancer . However , patients with intermediate to high-risk advanced disease have a chance of relapse . Currently , there are no standard treatment options postsurgery .
After 24 months followup , the study found that the estimated survival rate was 77.3 percent with pembrolizumab , compared to �� . 1 percent with a placebo .
�Pembrolizumab may provide a promising treatment for patients for whom there are few therapy options , � said lead author Dr Tony Choueiri , of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute , on the release of the findings . He added that pembrolizumab could be the new standard of care for delaying disease recurrence in patients with fully resected clear cell renal carcinoma .
WHO updates cervical cancer guidelines
More deaths are preventable with new approach to screening
fter half a million women contracted cervical cancer
A last year , the World Health Organization issued new guidelines for faster progress in screening and treatment for the disease .
Cervical cancer led to almost 350,000 deaths in 2020 , with the poorest women in the world facing the brunt of the disease .
The WHO ’ s global strategy for cervical cancer elimination calls for 70 percent of women globally to be screened regularly with highperformance tests , and for 90 percent of those needing it to receive the appropriate treatment .
Alongside vaccination of girls against the world ’ s most common sexually transmitted disease , human papillomavirus or HPV , implementing the WHO ’ s global strategy could prevent more than �2 million deaths from cervical cancer in the next 100 years .
The new guidelines include some important shifts in WHO ’ s recommended approaches to cervical screening .
In particular , it recommends a DNA-based HPV test as the preferred method , rather than visual inspection and the Pap smear , which are currently the most commonly used methods globally to detect pre-cancer lesions .
HPV-DNA testing detects high-risk strains of HPV that cause almost all cervical cancers . Unlike tests that rely on visual inspection , this form of testing is an objective diagnostic , leaving no space for interpretation of results .
Although the process for a doctor to obtain a cervical sample is similar for both cytology , or cell examination for cancer , and HPV-DNA testing , the latter is simpler , prevents more pre-cancers , and saves more lives than the other methods , while also being more cost-effective .
�Effective and accessible cervical screening and treatment programmes in every country are nonnegotiable if we are going to end the unimaginable suffering caused by cervical cancer , � said Dr Princess Nono Simelela , assistant director-general for strategic programmatic priorities at the WHO , on the launch of the new strategy .
�This new guideline will guide public health investment in better diagnostic tools , stronger implementation processes , and more acceptable options for screening to reach more women – and save more lives . �
26 AUGUST 2021 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com