Current Treatment for Cervical Cancer: An Update

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the leading gynecologic health problem which is considered as the 4th most widespread tumour in women. The prevalence of this fatal ailment is emerging gradually across the globe as about 18.1 million new cancer cases have been reported in 2018. The predominance of cervical cancer has been significantly found in low and middle-income countries as cervical cancer ranks fourth for both incidence and mortality, conversely, there are no effective screening systems available. This mortal state is certainly influenced by exposure of human papillomavirus, dysregulation of caspase enzyme, elevated expression of Inhibitor Apoptotic Protein (IAP), overexpression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors (VEGF), active/passive smoking, and dysfunction of the immune system. Generally, the clinical trial on pipeline drugs leads to the development of some promising new therapies that are more effective than standard approaches and often unavailable outside of the clinical setting. Indeed, several biological interventions that can modulate the pathological cascade of cervical cancer are still under investigation. Thus, there is a need to further summarise the promising therapies for cervical cancer as we have accomplished in HER2-positive breast cancer by targeting HER2 therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma. The present report revealed the pharmacokinetic/ pharmacodynamics aspects of various pipeline drugs that are promising for the treatment of cervical cancer. Moreover, the study revealed the possible mechanism, adverse drug reaction, combined therapy and pleiotropic action of these under investigational drugs, which can further improve the therapeutic efficacy and restrict the imaginable harmful effects.

Keywords: Cervical cancer; clinical trial; molecular biology; pharmacokinetics; pipeline drug for cervical cancer; quality of life.