Scientists from the UK claim to have made the biggest breakthrough in treating cervical cancer in 20 years. The findings, still at a trial stage, were presented at ESMO medical conference, reported the BBC. The researchers claimed that their new treatment can cut the risk of women dying from the disease or the cancer returning by 35 per cent. The news comes a week after the death of Sherika De Armas, former Miss World contestant, from cervical cancer. The Uruguayan died at the age of 26.
What happened to Sherika De Armas?
According to local media, Sherika De Armas fought against cervical cancer for two years. She had tried several treatments but couldn't defeat the disease. She died on October 13.
The cancer developed in the cervix, only a few centimetres away from the uterus. She was diagnosed in 2021 and kept trying different ways to treat it.
Who was Sherika De Armas?
The model represented Uruguay at the international level in 2015. At the competition in Sanya, China, she couldn't make it to the top 30, but she was only among six 18-year-olds at that time of competition.
She was complimented for her "beautiful face, towering height and charismatic personality", with one outlet calling Ms De Armas "one of the young promising talents of Uruguay."
"I always wanted to be a model, whether a beauty model, an advertising model or a catwalk model," she had told NetUruguay after the 2015 competition.
How dangerous is cervical cancer?
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. The Clinical Oncology Society said that an estimated 341,831 women died from cervical cancer in 2020.
The cervical cancer usually spreads in four ways: From cervix to the uterus, outside the cervix or uterus but is detected before reaching the walls of the pelvis, reaching lower part of the vagina, and finally to the lining of the bladder, the rectum, or to distant organs and bones, according to Healthline.
About the new treatment
The BBC report said that 250 women with cervical cancer received the new treatment - an intensive six-week course of carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy, followed by the "usual" treatment of radiotherapy plus weekly cisplatin and brachytherapy, known as chemoradiation.
The researchers gave another group of 250 women - known as the control group - the usual chemoradiation.
After five years, 80 per cent of those who had received the new treatment were alive and 73 per cent had not seen their cancer return or spread.
In the control group, 72 per cent were alive and 64 per cent had not seen their cancer return or spread.
"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. This is the biggest improvement in outcome in this disease in over 20 years," Dr Mary McCormack, lead investigator of the trial from UCL Cancer Institute and UCLH, told the outlet.
