12 important updates for Cervical Cancer Awareness Month

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Cervical Cancer Awareness Month is observed every January.

An estimated 13,800 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2020, and approximately 4,290 women will die of the disease this year, according to American Cancer Society.

Cervical Cancer Awareness Month helps educate the public on the malignancy, which is highly preventable through HPV vaccination and appropriate screening.

In conjunction with the observation, Healio provides the following updates in cervical cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment.

• Nivolumab (Opdivo, Bristol-Myers Squibb) in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy, Bristol-Myers Squibb) conferred clinical benefit for women with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer regardless of PD-L1 status, according to results of the randomized phase 1b/phase 2 CheckMate 358 study. Read more.
• Nivolumab showed promising efficacy among women with recurrent or metastatic cervical, vaginal or vulvar cancers, according to results of the single-arm phase 1/phase 2 CheckMate 358 trial. Read more.
• Women with cervical cancer who experienced psychiatric disorders and stress around the time of diagnosis demonstrated higher rates of cancer-specific mortality than women without such distress at diagnosis. Read more.
• Women who underwent minimally invasive surgery for early-stage cervical cancer demonstrated higher odds of recurrence than women who underwent open surgery. Results showed similar recurrence rates in both surgery groups among women with tumors 2 cm or smaller on preoperative assessment. Read more.
• Data from two trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of adoptive cell transfer with autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes showed promising overall response rates for the treatment of advanced cervical cancer. The investigational therapy LN-145 (Iovance Biotherapeutics) conferred a 44% overall response rate. Read more.
• Pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) monotherapy appeared safe and induced durable antitumor responses among patients with advanced cervical cancer, according to interim results of the phase 2 KEYNOTE-158 study. Based on these results, the FDA granted accelerated approval of pembrolizumab for women with advanced PD-L1-positive cervical cancer whose disease progressed during or after chemotherapy. Read more.
• An investigational therapeutic vaccine eliminated high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and underlying HPV infection among one-third of women in a phase 2 trial. Read more.
• A computer algorithm developed by Global Good and NCI has demonstrated accuracy in analyzing cervical images from modern digital cameras and detecting precancerous alterations that warrant further testing. Read more.

• One study presented at Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer demonstrated the survival benefits of brachytherapy for treating advanced cervical cancer. However, a second presentation highlighted the apparent underutilization of this approach, particularly among black women. Read more.
• A rapid scale-up of HPV vaccination and screening could effectively eliminate cervical cancer as a major public health problem in most countries by 2100, according to a modelling study published in Lancet Oncology. Read more.
• Women with early-stage cervical cancer who underwent minimally invasive radical hysterectomy had increased risk for recurrence and poorer survival outcomes than women who had open surgery, according to two studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In this cover story, Healio spoke with gynecologic oncologists and surgeons about these results, whether the data should have an immediate impact on clinical practice, what questions are left unanswered, and how surgeons should treat their patients before further conclusions are drawn. Read more.
• HPV vaccination programs significantly decrease HPV infections and cervical lesions among girls and women, as well as anogenital wart diagnoses among girls, women, boys and men. Read more.