The role of cisplatin alternative regimens with radiotherapy in cervical cancer

摘要

In 1983, a double blind randomized control trial (RCT) demonstrated the benefit of radiosensitization with chemotherapy during radiotherapy on advance stage cervical cancer Piver et al., 1983. Sixteen years and approximately 127,600 cases of cervical cancer in the United States later, four RCTs showed chemotherapy to be the preferred option as a radiosensitizer concurrently with radiotherapy for advance cervical cancer (Keys et al., 1999; Morris et al., 1999; Rose et al., 1999; Whitney et al., 1999). In the same year, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) made a clinical announcement stating that “strong consideration should be given to adding concurrent chemotherapy to radiation therapy in the treatment of invasive cervical cancer.” However it remained to be determined whether single agent cisplatin was the optimal choice (National Cancer Institute, 1999). In fact, according to the NCI, “It is not possible from these trials to conclude which cisplatin-based regimen is the optimal one.”.