title: New pharmacotherapy options for cervical cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cervical cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in females worldwide. Incorporation of chemotherapy to radiation in locally advanced disease and molecular targeted therapy for advanced disease has increased survival; nevertheless, there is room for further improvement.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review aims to discuss major recent advances in the treatment of invasive cervical cancer from randomized Phase III trials and ongoing late-stage developments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Combination chemotherapy concurrent with radiation plus adjuvant chemotherapy has demonstrated better survival rates as compared to standard cisplatin chemoradiation and ongoing Phase III trials would eventually confirm these findings. Gemcitabine and paclitaxel are the most evaluated agents added to cisplatin chemoradiation and in the adjuvant setting. Further survival gains combining classical cytotoxics will be limited by toxicity, hence, novel antitumor drugs; in particular angiogenesis inhibitors must be evaluated to increase the efficacy of current chemoradiation regimens. In advanced disease, modest survival gains were recently achieved with cisplatin doublets as compared to single agent cisplatin. Bevacizumab added to standard chemotherapy has for the first time demonstrated that targeted agents are valuable in the treatment of advanced cervical cancer. Ongoing Phase III trials for cervical cancer are limited reflecting the shortage of promising molecules and the need to increase research efforts for this disease.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigacion Biomédica en Cancer, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas , UNAM/Instituto Nacional de Cancerología , Mexico alfonso_duenasg@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dueñas-Gonzalez
authors.forename: Lucely
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cetina
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Coronel
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cano
authors.forename: Rigoberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dolores
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006801:Humans; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents