Adjuvant therapy in cervical cancer patients with high risk factors

Abstract

Neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapies are used adjunctively with surgery or radiation and are among the treatment options that are now employed for reducing treatment failure in early-stage cervical cancers with high-risk prognostic factors. Adjuvant therapies have been reported to significantly improve survival than would otherwise be possible with surgery or radiotherapy alone. However, for advanced cervical cancers, sequential or concurrent chemo-radiotherapy does not appear to significantly increase survival. The combination of radiotherapy with IFN-a2a and RA in the treatment of patients with locally advanced cervical cancer showed high response rates, however this should be confirmed in larger studies. Recent reports show that postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy has no benefit in survival, but that postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy has improved survival. Toxicities and the optimum number of cycles of neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy, as well as biologic therapy, will follow along with individualized treatment based on high-risk prognostic factors. Although more comprehensive studies and longer follow up will be required for complete evaluation of these adjuvant therapies, preliminary results are promising.