A new University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center study provides important insights for future clinical trials in treating advanced cervical cancer by establishing a five-month progression-free survival benchmark for evaluating new therapies.

The research, published in the journal Cancers, analyzed data from 127 patients with metastatic, persistent, or recurrent cervical cancer treated between 2002 and 2023. The study found that patients receiving chemotherapy typically lived about five months without their disease getting worse.

“This benchmark will help researchers better evaluate whether new treatments are more effective than current options,” said the study’s lead author, UK Markey Cancer Center radiation oncologist Denise Fabian, M.D.

Findings also highlight the urgent need for better treatments for advanced cervical cancer, says Fabian, an assistant professor in the UK College of Medicine’s Department of Radiation Medicine. While current therapies can help manage the disease temporarily, their effectiveness is limited, especially after initial treatment fails.

The retrospective study found that treatments containing the drug cisplatin showed slightly better results, with patients living about 6.5 months before their disease progressed. However, the average progression-free survival rate for all chemotherapy treatments decreased with each subsequent round of therapy, dropping to about three months for third-line treatments.

The findings are also significant for patients from Appalachian Kentucky. More than half of the study participants were from the region, which has higher cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates. 

The study’s results will help guide future research into new treatments, including radiopharmaceuticals — drugs that combine radiation therapy with cancer-targeting medications.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P30CA177558. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.