A phase III multicenter study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2009 meeting, conducted primarily in developing countries has shown that adding the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine (Gemzar) to a regimen that includes cisplatin chemotherapy and radiation therapy extends overall survival among women with locally advanced cervical cancer.

"In most developing countries where cervical cancer screening programmes are deficient or not available, about 70 per cent of women with cervical cancer are diagnosed with locally advanced disease and require chemotherapy and radiation," explained lead author Dr. Alfonso Duenas-Gonzalez, a cancer researcher at the National Cancer Institute of Mexico and the Instituto of Biomedical Research UNAM.

"Our findings are the first to show that adding gemcitabine to cisplatin chemotherapy slows cancer growth and improves survival, suggesting that this regimen may become a standard of care for these patients."

Dr. Duenas-Gonzalez and his colleagues compared progression-free survival (the time it took for cancer to grow) and overall survival among 259 women randomly assigned to receive standard therapy (cisplatin and radiation therapy) plus gemcitabine and 256 women who received the standard therapy alone. The trial was conducted among women in Argentina, Bosnia/Herzegovina, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Thailand. The researchers also noted that these treatments are common and readily accessible to patients in these countries.

After a median follow-up of three years, progression-free survival was 74 per cent in the gemcitabine group, versus 65 per cent in the standard therapy group; 78 percent of women in the gemcitabine group were alive compared with 69 per cent who received standard therapy alone.

The incidence of side effects was three times greater in the gemcitabine group, however, with low blood cell counts and gastrointestinal problems being the most common toxicities observed, though these side effects were generally tolerable.