Recent advances in gynecologic radiation oncology

Abstract

Significant advances have been made in the treatment of patients with gynecologic malignancies in the past few years. Integration of molecular testing in endometrial cancer now allows for more accurate risk stratification and personalized treatment recommendations for patients, with PORTEC-4a investigating outcomes after treatment de-escalation based on molecular subgroup. In several clinical trials, mismatch repair-deficiency (MMR-d) status has been proven to be a strong predictor for response to immunotherapy in the advanced/metastatic setting, and the role of immunotherapy in early-stage endometrial cancer is now being investigated. For patients with locally advanced cervical cancer, results from INTERLACE demonstrate that induction chemotherapy is now a viable treatment option, and KEYNOTE A-18 shows promise for the addition of concurrent and maintenance pembrolizumab to chemoradiation. Meanwhile, EMBRACE 1 and 2 have demonstrated the benefits of high-quality image guided brachytherapy, providing patients with locally advanced cervical cancer excellent control with improved toxicity. For patients with vulvar cancer, GOG279 demonstrated that addition of multi-agent chemotherapy with intensity modulated radiation therapy resulted in high rates of complete pathologic response, and GROINS-V III is currently investigating the role of chemotherapy and nodal radiation for patients with macrometastases on sentinel lymph node biopsy. This work summarizes the findings of recent landmark trials in endometrial, cervical, and vulvar cancer and their implications for the radiation oncologist.

Keywords: brachytherapy; cervical cancer; endometrial cancer; gynecologic malignancies; immunotherapy; radiation oncology; vulvar cancer.