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6 treatment settings, 6 with more than one named option. Each section lays out the options the standard of care names, what each is for, the trials behind them with their recorded results, the side effects and cautions on record, and questions to ask. Built from the cancer page's standard-of-care rows; nothing here is advice for your case.
Weekly cisplatin with pelvic external-beam radiotherapy followed by image-guided brachytherapy, completed within eight weeks.
Cisplatin is the original platinum chemotherapy, discovered by accident in 1965; it cures testicular cancer and makes radiation work better in cervical and head and neck cancer.
IMRT and IGRT shape the radiation beam to the tumour's outline from multiple angles and check the patient's position with a scan before every session, so surrounding organs receive less dose. Fewer, larger doses are now standard in breast and prostate cancer, but a low-dose bath still spreads across normal tissue.
Brachytherapy places a radioactive source directly inside or next to the tumour.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Pembrolizumab with chemoradiation and for up to two years afterwards (KEYNOTE-A18).
Pembrolizumab is a PD-1 blocking antibody approved in more than 40 settings, from melanoma and lung cancer to the first tumour-agnostic approval for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours in 2017, and before and after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer. A subcutaneous form arrived in 2025, and it is the backbone partner for ADCs and personalised neoantigen vaccines.
Cisplatin is the original platinum chemotherapy, discovered by accident in 1965; it cures testicular cancer and makes radiation work better in cervical and head and neck cancer.
Brachytherapy places a radioactive source directly inside or next to the tumour.
PFS HR 0.70; 36-month OS 82.6% vs 74.8% (HR 0.67).
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothyroidism (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 8% | - |
| Pneumonitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 3.4% | - |
| Colitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 1.7% | - |
| Hepatitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 0.7% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Six weekly cycles of carboplatin-paclitaxel before chemoradiation (INTERLACE), particularly where immunotherapy is not available.
Carboplatin is a platinum chemotherapy that crosslinks DNA; it is part of the standard pre-surgery regimen for triple-negative breast cancer.
A microtubule poison discovered in the Pacific yew tree, among the most used chemotherapies in breast, lung, and ovarian cancer.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Adjuvant carboplatin-paclitaxel after chemoradiation gave no benefit in OUTBACK.
Carboplatin is a platinum chemotherapy that crosslinks DNA; it is part of the standard pre-surgery regimen for triple-negative breast cancer.
A microtubule poison discovered in the Pacific yew tree, among the most used chemotherapies in breast, lung, and ovarian cancer.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Pelvic MRI and whole-body PET-CT; surgical para-aortic staging in selected cases.
MRI uses a strong magnet and radio waves, with no ionising radiation, to picture soft tissue in finer contrast than CT, so it is the standard scan for brain tumours, prostate, rectal cancer staging, liver lesions and breast screening in high-risk women. It is slow, expensive and blurred by movement.
PET and CT in one machine, so hot spots on the PET are pinned to exact locations on the CT.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Pelvic exenteration in selected patients; re-irradiation with brachytherapy or protons in specialist centres.
Brachytherapy places a radioactive source directly inside or next to the tumour.
Radiation using protons, which stop inside the tumour instead of passing through, so tissue behind it gets no dose.
Surgeons operate through small incisions using robotic arms with tremor-free precision and 3D vision.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.