Health: New Hope For Cervical Cancer Patient

A new cervical cancer drug offers the first good hope of extending life for women with advanced stages of the disease, a study published in the United States today has found.

Existing chemotherapy regimes are largely ineffective against advanced stages of cervical cancer, which kills 250,000 women worldwide every year.

That’s why early screening is so critical — regular Pap smears have managed to reduce deaths in wealthy countries by 80 percent.

The study found that women who were given the drug bevacizumab (Avastin) along with their chemotherapy prolonged survival to an average of 17 months, compared with 13.3 months for those who only received chemotherapy.

Tumor shrinkage rates were 48 percent for patients who received the drug, compared with 36 percent for those who did not.

The results also indicated that the survival benefit did not come at the cost of diminished quality of life.

The phase III clinical trial separated the 452 patients into four treatment arms but found no significant differences in survival between those receiving cisplatin or topotecan (Hycamtin) chemotherapy treatments.

Genentech’s drug bevacizumab is currently approved by US regulators for use in several advanced cancers but has not yet been approved for gynecological cancer. It works to block blood vessel formation in the tumor.

Some 4,000 women die of cervical cancer every year in the United States.

We Appreciate Your Time On the Blog...Thanks For Dropping Your Comments. If you need to contact the crew of Bosydeprincessa on BreakingNews/TipOff/Advert/Features/Life happenings in and around your zone, Email: info.posche@gmail.com Bbpin: 7BB53FED(Bizness)