Manas Dubey, Baljit Singh, Vivek Kaushal, Rakesh Dhankhar, Rajeev Atri, Anil k Dhull and Faraz Khan
Background: Currently, the standard treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer patients is concurrent chemoradiotherapy. A number of chemotherapeutic drugs have been used in a concomitant setting along with radiotherapy in the management of cervical cancer. Docetaxel and cisplatin have shown improved overall response rates with acceptable side effects. Here we aim to compare tumor control, side effects and treatment-related toxicity in two concomitant chemoradiation schedules.
Methods: The patients were divided randomly into two groups of thirty patients each. Both the groups were treated with a combination of External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT) with 50 Gy/5 weeks/25 fractions to the whole pelvis along with concomitant chemotherapy. Group I (study group) received concomitant chemotherapy with injection docetaxel (20 mg/m2) and injection cisplatin (50 mg/m2) intravenously weekly for 5 weeks followed by HDR brachytherapy. Group II (Control Group) patients received concurrent cisplatin 40 mg/m2 intravenously weekly for five weeks followed by HDR brachytherapy.
Results and Conclusion: The survival difference in the two groups was not statistically significant (p-value=0.718). Acute hematological and lower gastrointestinal toxicities were higher in the study group than the control group but these were not statistically significant. There was a trend towards better local control and better disease-free survival with doublet chemotherapy (docetaxel plus cisplatin) as compared to a single agent (cisplatin), but it was not statistically significant.
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