Embargoed Until 10 a.m. EST February 22, 1999
Contact: Michael J. Bernstein (703) 648-8910 [email protected]
Cynthia Schell, (703) 648-8928, [email protected]
RTOG Clinical Trial Finds Radiation, Chemotherapy Major Breakthrough in Treating Cervical Cancer
A national Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) clinical study has concluded that adding two chemotherapy agents to radiation therapy significantly improves the survival rate of women treated for locally advanced cervical cancer.
Results of the clinical trial were published on the New England Journal of Medicine web site February 22 and were to appear in the NEJM in the next few months.
Study Chair, Mitchell Morris, M.D, professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, called the findings "a tremendous advance in the treatment of women with cervical cancer. The addition of chemotherapy to radiation will help thousands of women survive this cancer each year."
Walter J. Curran Jr., M.D., RTOG chairman, said "this exciting result confirms the importance of conducting large randomized studies. The RTOG believes this study will change the standard of care for women with cancer of the cervix." Dr. Curran is clinical director of the Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia and is professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Jefferson Medical College.
The seven-year study, involving more than 400 patients, compared treatment with radiation alone to radiation therapy combined with 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin, two chemotherapy agents. Patients were followed between 1990 and 1998. A total of 61 institutions participated in the clinical trial.
Estimated survival rates at five years were 73 percent for patients treated with chemoradiation and 58 percent for patients treated with radiation alone, according to Dr. Morris.
Disease-free survival rates were 66 percent for chemoradiation patients and 40 percent for patients receiving radiation alone, he added.
The incidence of the cervical cancer returning in the pelvic area and beyond was significantly higher for patients treated with radiation alone, the clinical trial found.
Both groups had comparable side effects. As predicted, increased numbers of women had lowered blood counts, which places patients at higher risk from infections, but this side effect was reversible, Dr. Morris explained.
For information on papers on other related clinical trials, also posted on the NEJM web site February 22, call the National Cancer Institute Information Office at 301-496-6641.
RTOG is a federally funded cancer clinical trials group, which carries out multi-disciplinary research nationwide. It is a clinical research component of the American College of Radiology. For more details about RTOG clinical trials, contact Nancy Smith at 215-574-3205.
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