Commonly used chemotherapy drugs for cervical cancer

With the continuous development of chemotherapy drugs and the improvement of drug administration routes and methods, chemotherapy for cervical cancer has achieved certain therapeutic effects and is an indispensable and important part of the comprehensive treatment of cervical cancer. Cisplatin is considered to be the most effective drug and is recommended for the first-line treatment of recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. The overall survival of cisplatin chemotherapy is about 6-9 months. Why choose cisplatin-based chemotherapy as a chemoradiotherapy regimen? The main reasons are as follows:

1. Cisplatin itself is effective as a single-drug chemotherapy for recurrent cervical cancer.
2. Cisplatin has very mild effect on the bone marrow.
3. In vivo and in vitro studies have found that when cisplatin is combined with radiotherapy, it can enhance the killing of tumor cells by radiation. The latter effect is achieved by inhibiting the repair of sublethal radiation damage and sensitizing hypoxic cells.
4. The results of animal experiments show that chemotherapy based on cisplatin is most effective when given just before radiotherapy. Compared with chemotherapy drugs given after radiotherapy, the enhanced effect of radiation on tumor cell killing is most obvious. [Carboplatin or paclitaxel are also effective and well tolerated, and can also be used as first-line chemotherapy drugs. Therefore, single-agent cisplatin, carboplatin or paclitaxel can be used as a palliative treatment for patients with recurrent cervical cancer who are not suitable for surgery or radiotherapy.