Cervical cancer therapeutics: a literature review

Abstract

Introduction. Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most frequent cause of death, and because of its existence, there are several kinds of therapies that range between invasive to non-invasive ones. The purpose of these procedures is to impact disease survival within the human body. Thus, among those treatment methods used for cervical cancer treatment, we can find the following: external beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy, chemotherapy, cervical conization, trachelectomy, and radical hysterectomy. Objective. To review the characteristics of each one of the available methods for treating cervical cancer. Methodology. Published articles between 2013 and 2016 were collected using the databases PUBMED and LILACS. These articles had as a central topic cervical cancer and its treatment. After applying certain inclusionand exclusion criteria within the research, 41 articles were selected to be reviewed. Results. As non-invasive treatment methods for cervical cancer, the following are proposed: cervical conization method, which has a 5-year survival rate of 95.1% when treating micro-invasive cancer; external beam radiotherapy method, which has an overall 5-year survival rate of 92.2%; chemotherapy method, whose survival rate is similar to external beam radiotherapy method’s one, but with a slight diminishing of surgery risk; and finally brachytherapy method, which combined with chemotherapy method achieves 64% of response among patients in cancer stages IA, IIA and IB. On the other hand, more invasive treatment methods are presented as follows: trachelectomy method when treating early cancer stages (with no local involvement or distant spreading) reaches a survival rate of 95% and a posttreatment pregnancy rate of 50%, and radical hysterectomy method has a 5-year survival rate of 100% among patients in cancer stage IA2 and IB1, in spite in some occasions this method requires to be combined with other treatment techniques. New therapeutic approaches and variations have been developed for surgical techniques. Conclusions. Cervical Cancer treatments have shown promising results regarding survival rate and in some procedures, such as conization and trachelectomy, preservation of fertility rate. Methods such as chemotherapy, external beam radiotherapy, and brachytherapy have a great control of cervical cancer in early stages, and they can also be used as adjuvant therapies for surgical interventions. Nonetheless, radical hysterectomy is the standard and essential medical procedure for managing cervical cancer. This method has shown good results regarding survival rates and its variants have helped to diminish associated complications. [Suárez-Cadena FC. Cervical cancer therapeutics: a literature review. MedUNAB. 2018;21(1):100-114. doi:10.29375/01237047.2583].