Advancements in Cervical Cancer Treatment: Targeted Therapies and Immunotherapy
Advancements in cervical cancer treatments have created a new landscape for patient care. Expert Dr. Shannon MacLaughlan from University of Illinois discusses immunotherapy, targeted therapies, antibody drug conjugates, and proactive advice for patient care.
[ACT]IVATION TIP
“…ask your team about clinical trial opportunities, because clinical trials are how we discover the next best treatment. And if you are eligible for a clinical trial, then that means you could gain access to that treatment early. So ask your provider about clinical trial opportunities.”
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Transcript:
Lisa Hatfield:
Dr. MacLaughlan, what exciting advancements in cervical cancer treatment are on the horizon? For example, how do targeted therapies like antibody drug conjugates fit into the broader future landscape of cervical cancer therapies?
Shannon MacLaughlan:
There are a lot of exciting developments in cervical cancer. And it’s exciting as a gynecologic oncologist because earlier in my career when I talked with someone diagnosed with stage IV cervical cancer or who had a recurrence, there were basically no treatment options that would work, and now we have so many options for patients, and I am starting to see complete responses in situations I’ve never seen before.
So some specific advances, I would say, one, would be in the surgical approach of cervical cancer. We are getting much better at taking care of patients who have surgeries and minimizing the impact of the surgery on their body. With regard to systemic treatment options, I would say the most, the biggest impact I’ve seen so far is the addition of immunotherapy for the treatment of cervical cancer such that I have seen patients with stage IV disease have complete responses to their treatment, and I’ve seen patients who have had recurrences in their spine get complete responses and get to another remission, and that’s exciting. That’s the lease on life that we could not talk about just a few years ago.
Targeted therapies are an important phenomenon and movement in all cancer care, because it represents thinking about cancers differently. If we think about cancers based on where they start, where in the body they are started so if we think of cervical cancers just as a cancer that starts in the cervix, then we can only lean on experience from other patients who have cervical cancer, and it puts our thinking into a very narrow box. Targeted therapy means that we’re looking at the cancer, not where it started, but what that tumor is doing under the microscope. What proteins is it producing, what mutations does it have? And those mutations are usually a clue to how the cancer is surviving. And if we can have that kind of a clue, then we can choose a treatment that can target that particular mutation, no matter where the cancer started in the body.
It’s a very new kind of drug called an ADC or an antibody drug conjugate. What that means is the antibody targets the mutation. All it does is bind to the cancer cell, but it’s got attached to it, a little molecule of chemo, and so it sneaks itself into the cancer cell and the chemo can kill the cancer cell from the inside, instead of the outside. And that can improve efficacy. It definitely changes the side effect profile and toxicity profile. And so that has opened up additional doors for patients with cervical cancer that weren’t previously available.
My [ACT]IVATION tip for this topic is to ask your team about clinical trial opportunities, because clinical trials are how we discover the next best treatment. And if you are eligible for a clinical trial, then that means you could gain access to that treatment early. So ask your provider about clinical trial opportunities.
