Adjunct therapy increases cervical cancer survival, data concludes

ORLANDO Clinical data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 45th annual meeting Sunday showed that adding an Eli Lilly & Co. drug to the standard therapy increases progression-free survival for women with locally advanced cervical cancer.

Lilly presented data from a 515-patient phase 3 clinical trial at the meeting showing that adding the injected drug Gemzar (gemcitabine hydrochloride) to the chemotherapy cisplatin and radiation therapy caused a statistically significant increase in progression-free survival in women with the disease, the second most common cause of cancer death in women.

“While there have been tremendous advances in cervical cancer prevention in the form of early screening and vaccination, oncologists have essentially been using the same treatment standard for the last decade,” lead study author Alfonso Duenas-Gonzalez of Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia e Instituto de Investigaciones Biomedicas.