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Six weeks of cheap, generic chemotherapy before standard chemoradiation cut deaths by 40%, an advance usable anywhere in the world.
INTERLACE, trial NCT01566240 sponsored by the UCL Cancer Trials Centre and Cancer Research UK and published in the Lancet in 2024, showed that six weeks of cheap, generic carboplatin and paclitaxel before standard chemoradiation for locally advanced cervical cancer cut deaths by forty percent, an advance usable anywhere in the world. It randomised 500 patients across 32 centres in five countries including India and Mexico and met its primary progression-free and overall survival endpoints at five years. Earlier neoadjuvant trials before surgery were negative, so this short induction before radiation is a distinct strategy not yet reproduced, and it is the pragmatic choice where pembrolizumab is unaffordable.
Numbers are from the trial as recorded here; see the source links in the table below. This is orientation, not medical advice: ask your team how closely the trial population matches you.
500 enrolled.
| Endpoint | Arm | n | Value | HR (95% CI) | p | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progression-free survival at 5 yearsprimary | Induction chemo + CRT | 250 | 72% | 0.65 (0.46 to 0.91) | - | link |
| CRT alone | 250 | 64% | ||||
| Overall survival at 5 yearsprimary | Induction chemo + CRT | - | 80% | 0.6 (0.4 to 0.91) | - | link |
| CRT alone | - | 72% |
Shares Induction chemotherapy → chemoradiation (locally advanced cervical cancer), Locally advanced cervical cancer, Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel, Cervical cancer.
Shares Chemotherapy roadmap: mustard gas → curative combinations → the warhead inside smarter drugs, Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel, Carboplatin.
Shares Locally advanced cervical cancer, Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel, Cervical cancer, Cisplatin.
Shares Radiotherapy roadmap: X-rays → shaped beams → fewer fractions, particles and FLASH, Brachytherapy, Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, Cervical cancer.
Shares Locally advanced cervical cancer, Radiotherapy roadmap: X-rays → shaped beams → fewer fractions, particles and FLASH, Brachytherapy, Cervical cancer.
Shares Chemotherapy roadmap: mustard gas → curative combinations → the warhead inside smarter drugs, Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, Cervical cancer, Cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Shares Chemotherapy roadmap: mustard gas → curative combinations → the warhead inside smarter drugs, Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, Cervical cancer, Cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Shares Locally advanced cervical cancer, Brachytherapy, Cervical cancer.