New chemo regime not effective for cervical cancer patients
If you ’ re doing chemoradiation , you can skip chemotherapy , first study finds
Additional chemotherapy given after standard chemoradiation treatment does not improve survival for women with locally advanced cervical cancer and is associated with additional side effects , according to results of a phase III international trial .
While both are cancer treatments , chemotherapy uses special drugs to shrink or kill cancer cells , while radiation therapy kills them with highenergy beams that target more precisely the cancerous areas .
The long-anticipated findings are likely to immediately change practice for those who had hoped the regimen would reduce disease recurrence in other organs .
The standard treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer is chemoradiation with cisplatin-based chemotherapy concurrent with radiation . Yet a significant percentage of patients still relapse and die as a result of metastatic disease .
Because carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy after chemoradiation are initial treatments for metastatic cancers and patients who have relapsed , and are also successfully used as adjuvant , or an enhancing , therapy for other cancers , some oncologists routinely treat women with locally advanced cervical cancer with the regimen .
However , until now , there has been no evidence for or against the addition of chemotherapy in such cases .
A late-stage trial has now demonstrated that chemotherapy following chemoradiation did not improve survival over standard chemoradiation alone for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer .
“ The study confirms that chemoradiotherapy alone is currently our best possible treatment for women with locally advanced cervical cancer . Not only is there no benefit with adjuvant chemotherapy , but severe side effects are also increased ,” said lead author Dr Linda R . Mileshkin , a medical oncologist at the Peter McCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne , Australia .
Cytosponge given green light for public trials
Oesophageal cancer diagnostic going public after AI developed to shorten time for analysis
A
new technique to help experts diagnose a precancerous condition that can increase the risk of developing oesophageal cancer is being trialled in Britain .
Cytosponge is a new diagnostic tool developed by Cancer Research UK scientists at the University of Cambridge .
Whereas patients would normally have to go to hospital for an endoscopy to identify Britain ’ s fourth most common cause of cancer death , the signs of which are often mistaken for heart burn , Cytosponge uses a “ sponge on a string ” to collect cells from the oesophagus . The patient swallows this , and as it ’ s pulled out , the sponge collects cell samples along the entire oesophagus .
These are then sent to the lab for testing for TFF3 , a biomarker linked to Barrett ’ s oesophagus , an inflammatory condition that can lead to cancer .
Previous research has suggested that the Cytosponge-TFF3 test can identify 10 times more people with Barrett ’ s oesophagus than can be done currently by family doctors . However , widespread testing using the method would likely cause a bottleneck for pathologists due to the lengthy process required to analyse samples .
Now the Cambridge researchers have found a way to use artificial intelligence to ease the burden . Their approach applies deep learning by analysing images taken of Cytosponge samples to find features of particular cells that indicate the presence of Barrett ’ s oesophagus .
In testing , they were able to correctly identify 93 percent of negative Barrett ’ s oesophagus cases , although assessment by pathologists was more successful in finding positive cases .
“ Research such as this , exploring how to support pathologists in their vital work through new technology and innovations , is vital ,” said Michelle Mitchell , chief executive of Cancer Research UK , in a statement .
GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com JUNE 2021
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