Chemotherapy for cervical cancer
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. These drugs target rapidly dividing cells throughout the whole body. This means that chemotherapy kills cancer cells but it can also damage healthy cells.
With most types of chemotherapy, the drugs travel through the blood to reach and destroy cancer cells all over the body, including cells that may have broken away from the primary tumour. This is described as systemic therapy.
Chemotherapy is sometimes used to treat cervical cancer. If you have chemotherapy, your healthcare team will use what they know about the cancer and about your health to plan the drugs, doses and schedules.
Chemotherapy may be the only treatment you have or it may be used along with other cancer treatments. You may have chemotherapy to:
- destroy cancer cells left behind after surgery and reduce the risk that the cancer will come back (recur) (called adjuvant chemotherapy)
- relieve pain or control the symptoms of advanced cervical cancer (called palliative chemotherapy)
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be given during the same time period to treat cervical cancer. This is called chemoradiation. Some chemotherapy drugs can help make radiation work better by making cancer cells more sensitive to radiation. Combining chemotherapy and radiation therapy can be more effective than either treatment on its own.
Chemotherapy drugs commonly used for cervical cancer
The most common chemotherapy drugs used to treat cervical cancer are:
- cisplatin
- carboplatin
- paclitaxel
- topotecan
- gemcitabine
- 5-fluorouracil
- ifosfamide
- docetaxel
- irinotecan
- mitomycin
- vinorelbine
- epirubicin
- doxorubicin
The most common chemotherapy drug combinations used to treat cervical cancer are:
- cisplatin and paclitaxel
- carboplatin and docetaxel
- cisplatin and gemcitabine
- cisplatin and topotecan
- cisplatin and ifosfamide
Chemoradiation
Chemotherapy may be given with external radiation therapy to make the radiation therapy work better. This is called chemoradiation.
Cisplatin is the chemotherapy drug most commonly used in chemoradiation for cervical cancer. It may also be combined with 5-fluorouracil. If cisplatin alone is used, it is usually given once a week during the radiation therapy schedule. If cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil are used, they are usually given every 4 weeks during radiation therapy.
Side effects
Side effects of chemotherapy will depend mainly on the drug, the dose, how itʼs given, if chemotherapy is given at the same time (chemoradiation) and your overall health. Tell your healthcare team if you have side effects that you think are from chemotherapy. The sooner you tell them of any problems, the sooner they can suggest ways to help you deal with them.
Common side effects of chemotherapy drugs for cervical cancer include:
Find out more about chemotherapy
Find out more about chemotherapy and side effects of chemotherapy. To make the decisions that are right for you, ask your healthcare team questions about chemotherapy.
Details on specific drugs change regularly. Find out more about sources of drug information and where to get details on specific drugs.
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