Cervical and prostate cancer breakthroughs explained: What have scientists discovered and what does it mean?

Breakthroughs for both cervical and prostate cancers forecast a bright future for medical advancements against cancer in the coming years.

Using existing drugs to treat cervical cancer before standard treatment could lead to a 35 per cent reduction in the risk of relapse or death, a new study suggests. Meanwhile, new ways to treat prostate cancer could be on the horizon after researchers figured out how to reverse the disease’s resistance to treatment. It is hoped the work will lead to a greater understanding of what causes the disease to resist drugs and how to overcome it.

Prostate cancer breakthrough

In an early clinical trial, scientists from a number of organisations used a combination of treatments to block the messages cancer uses to “hijack” white blood cells. The drugs resensitised a subset of advanced cancer and led to tumours shrinking or not growing any further. They say the work provides the first proof that targeting “feeder” myeloid white blood cells, used by tumours to fuel cancer growth, can reverse drug resistance and slow the progression of tumours.

The team was led by the Institute of Cancer Research in London, the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) in Switzerland. Johann De Bono, a professor of experimental cancer medicine at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This research proves for the first time that targeting myeloid cells rather than the cancer cells themselves can shrink tumours and benefit patients. This is tremendously exciting and it suggests we have an entirely new way to treat prostate cancer on the horizon.”

For the study, published in Nature, the team recruited patients with advanced prostate cancer which had stopped responding to hormone therapy. From a group of 21 patients who could be evaluated, researchers found responses in five (24 per cent).

Either their tumours shrank by more than 30 per cent, they saw dramatic decreases in circulating levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a marker secreted by the prostate which is often elevated by cancer, or their blood levels of circulating tumour cells dropped, in response to the combination. Patients who received the treatment also showed a drop in myeloid cells in the blood and biopsies revealed fewer cells in their tumours. The study builds on a decade of work by the team, which has been exploring how myeloid cells fuel prostate cancers.

What about cervical cancer?

Researchers from the UCL Cancer Institute and UCLH looked into whether a short course of induction chemotherapy (IC), where a drug is used to destroy as many cancer cells as possible, before chemoradiation (CRT), could help with this. Over a 10-year period, 500 patients who had been diagnosed with cervical cancer – that was large enough to see without a microscope but hadn’t spread to other parts of the body – took part in the Interlace trial at hospitals in the UK, Mexico, India, Italy and Brazil.

Researchers looked into whether a short course of IC before CRT could reduce rates of relapse and death.

After five years, researchers discovered that 80 per cent of the people who received a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy were alive, whilst 73 per cent had not seen their cancer return or spread. A major benefit, according to researchers, is that it can be incorporated into standard of care treatment relatively quickly, because cheap, accessible and already-approved ingredients such as carboplatin and paclitaxel are needed for IC.

“Our trial shows that this short course of additional chemotherapy delivered immediately before the standard CRT can reduce the risk of the cancer returning or death by 35 per cent,” said Dr Mary McCormack, lead investigator of the trial from UCL Cancer Institute and UCLH.

“This is the biggest improvement in outcome in this disease in over 20 years. I’m incredibly proud of all the patients who participated in the trial; their contribution has allowed us to gather the evidence needed to improve treatment of cervical cancer patients everywhere."