January 20, 2010 - Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide. Treatments for the disease have changed markedly over the last decade as a result of guidelines issued by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1999, which stated that chemoradiotherapy should be considered as an alternative to radiotherapy.
In a recent study, researchers found that combining drugs and radiotherapy improves the survival chances of women receiving treatment for cervical cancer.
A study conducted by Cochrane Researchers analyzed the effects of combined drug and radiotherapy in cervical cancer treatment to date. The researchers reviewed data from 15 trials involving a total of 3,452 women. They found that compared to women who had radiotherapy alone, women receiving chemoradiotherapy were more likely to live for longer after treatment. Five years after receiving treatment, 66 out of every 100 women survived with chemoradiotherapy compared to 60 out of 100 with radiotherapy. In addition, treatment with chemoradiotherapy reduced the chance of the cancer coming back or spreading to other areas. Crucially, their analysis showed that the benefits of chemoradiotherapy were not just restricted to the platinum-based drugs recommended by the NCI.
Based on a small subset of the data, there was also an indication that continuing drug therapy after chemoradiotherapy could improve survival rates even further, although the researchers say more studies are required to confirm this.
May 15, 2025 
