NCI Is Testing if the Merger of Recent Therapeutic Advances Improves Progression-Free and Overall Survival in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers, especially in under-resourced countries and regions of the United States where it is a major public health problem. Vaccination and screening, where instituted, have reduced numbers of this deadly disease.

Two recent studies have shown therapeutic advances and the benefits of:

• Neoadjuvant chemotherapy on overall survival - INTERLACE, an international, multicenter, randomized phase 3 trial
• Immune checkpoint inhibition therapy to standard of care intervention- KEYNOTE-A18/ENGOT-cx11/GOG-3047, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial

NIH is now supporting a phase 3 trial, NRG-GY037 (led by NRG Oncology, part of the NCI National Clinical Trials Network), to test if the merger of these recent advances improves progression-free and overall survival in women with newly diagnosed locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC with clinical stage III-IVA). Specifically, the GY037 trial tests the addition of the INTERLACE weekly cisplatin/paclitaxel regimen with added pembrolizumab to chemoradiation with pembrolizumab followed by pembrolizumab.

If this intensification trial in advanced stage nonmetastatic LACC is successful, it would improve outcomes for the group of patients with the highest risk of cervical cancer relapse.