Clinical Trials for Cervical Cancer

For patients with cervical cancer, standard treatment may include surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. Before a treatment regimen can become standard, it must go through a clinical trial. Clinical trials test if a potential treatment is safe and effective in humans. Clinical trials go through a series of phases, starting with a smaller group of patients and expanding to a much larger group. The video below explains the three main phases of a clinical trial.

Most cancer-related clinical trials involve possible new treatments, including vaccines, surgical approaches, and immunotherapy (using the patient’s own immune system to fight the cancer).

Benefits and Risks

For some patients, a clinical trial may be the best treatment option, but any patient should carefully measure the risks and benefits involved. It’s important to understand what a clinical trial is, what your rights are as a patient, and what the risks and benefits are before making a decision. The National Institutes of Health, lists the following benefits and risks of trial participation:

Benefits:

• Play an active role in your own health care.
• Gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available.
• Obtain expert medical care at leading health care facilities during the trial.

Risks:

• There may be unpleasant, serious or even life-threatening side effects to experimental treatment.
• The experimental treatment may not be effective for the participant.
• The protocol may require more of their time and attention than would a non-protocol treatment, including trips to the study site, more treatments, hospital stays or complex dosage requirements.

Before entering a clinical trial, a patient will go through the process of informed consent where they are informed of the risks and benefits specific to that trial, as well as complete details of all the tests, treatments, and procedures involved. The patient will also learn about their rights, including the right to withdraw at any time.

Cervical Cancer Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are not limited to new cervical cancer treatment options—researchers are also looking at cervical cancer prevention, diagnosis, palliative care (support and symptom management), as well as psychosocial issues related to cancer. ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the National Institutes of Health, offers an extensive list of clinical trials as well as detailed information on the trial, including criteria for patients to qualify.

Below are examples of trials currently recruiting new participants, to offer an idea of the type of research currently underway. ClinicalTrials.gov also offers information on trials that have been completed, along with results from those trials.

• A Phase 1 study of RTX-321 for the treatment of patients with HPV 16-associated cancers, including cervical cancer, anal cancer and head and neck cancer. Learn More
• A Randomized, Open-Label, Phase 3 Trial of Tisotumab Vedotin vs Investigator’s Choice Chemotherapy in Second- or Third-Line Recurrent or Metastatic Cervical Cancer. Learn more
• A Phase 2, Multicenter Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety Using Autologous Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (LN-145) in Patients with Recurrent, Metastatic or Persistent Cervical Carcinoma. Learn more.
• A Phase 2 Study of Anti-PD-1 Independently or in Combination With Anti-CTLA-4 in Second-Line Cervical Cancer. Learn more

Clinical Trial Resources

• Information on clinical trials, including a search tool and live chat line, from the National Cancer Institute
• Taking Part in Cancer Treatment Research Studies. This booklet book explains cancer treatment clinical trials and gives you some things to think about when deciding whether to take part.
• ClinicalTrials.gov. A service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, this site allows you to search for clinical trials for any condition.
• MedlinePLus, from the US National Library of Medicine, offers an overview of clinical trials along with a load of links to more information