Rates of overall and progression-free survival for locally advanced cervical cancer have risen significantly since 2024, when the FDA approved the use of pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda) with chemoradiation for stage 3-4A disease. Investigators hope to push those rates even higher with data from a phase 3 clinical trial (NCT07061977) underway at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, the trial is recruiting patients with newly diagnosed, locally advanced cervical cancer with T3 or T4 disease, with or without lymph node involvement.
Patients in both arms of the study will receive the standard-of-care regimen that combines pembrolizumab — a monoclonal antibody that “releases the brakes” on the immune system by blocking the PD-1 protein that inhibits T cell proliferation — and the chemotherapy carboplatin (brand name Paraplatin) and radiation therapy.
But prior to that treatment, patients in the experimental arm will go through an induction phase intended to quickly induce remission with a combination of pembrolizumab, carboplatin and the chemotherapy paclitaxel (brand name Taxol).
“This large cooperative trial addresses the critical question of the benefit of induction chemotherapy and immunotherapy in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer,” says Peter Frederick, MD, FACOG, Clinical Chief of Gynecology and Site Principal Investigator of the study at Roswell Park. “It will provide us with valuable information regarding survival outcomes, safety and tolerability that has the potential to change the standard of care for patients with potentially curable cervical cancer.”
BROADCASTMED