WASHINGTON, Oct 24, (Agencies): In a groundbreaking revelation, recent clinical trials have demonstrated that administering cost-effective, pre-existing medications before standard chemoradiation treatment can substantially decrease the mortality risk among women battling cervical cancer. This remarkable finding, unveiled at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) medical conference, has left the scientific community enthused, deeming it the most significant advance in cervical cancer treatment in two decades.

The study enlisted 500 cervical cancer patients, aged 24 to 78, representing five different countries. Half of the participants underwent the innovative treatment, involving a six-week regimen of carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy, followed by conventional radiotherapy and chemoradiation. The other half, serving as the control group, received the standard treatment exclusively.

The results were striking. After a five-year follow-up, 80% of the women who underwent the novel induction chemotherapy treatment were still alive, with 73% exhibiting no recurrence or metastasis of the cancer. In stark contrast, among those who received only the standard radiotherapy treatment, 72% survived, and 64% remained free from cancer recurrence or spread.

Consequently, the study concluded that "Induction chemotherapy followed by CRT [chemoradiation] significantly enhances PFS [progression-free survival] and OS [overall survival] in LACC [locally advanced cervical cancer] and warrants consideration as the new standard of care."

Dr. Mary McCormack, the lead researcher from the UCL Cancer Institute and UCLH, expressed the significance of their findings, stating, "Our trial reveals that this concise course of supplementary chemotherapy administered just before the standard CRT can reduce the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 35%." She further emphasized, "This marks the most substantial improvement in outcomes for this disease in over two decades."

Cancer Research UK, the British-based charitable organization that sponsored the study, lauded the results as nothing short of "remarkable."