Dr. Monk on Emerging Therapies in Cervical Cancer

Bradley J. Monk, MD, FACS, FACOG, US oncology medical director of Gynecologic Oncology Research and a professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, discusses emerging therapies in cervical cancer.

Early therapeutic intervention offers the best chance of survival in cervical cancer, explains Monk. Moreover, ​adding immunotherapy to chemoradiation for patients with unresectable locally advanced stage II and III disease could be a potentially promising approach.

Notably, the ​​phase 3 CALLA trial evaluating durvalumab (Imfinzi) plus chemoradiation and ​the phase 3 MK-3475-A18/KEYNOTE-A18/ENGOT-cx11 trial evaluating pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemoradiation are ongoing global studies in this space.

The rationale for this research stems from the fact that chemoradiation can trigger an immune response. As such, the addition of a checkpoint inhibitor may result in a higher response rate compared with chemoradiation alone, Monk concludes.