[Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin and CPT-11 for advanced cervical cancer]

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is currently used for the treatment of advanced cervical cancer by many institutions. We investigated the value of NAC followed by radical surgery and/or radiotherapy for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. Sixteen patients with stage Ib2-IIIb cervical cancer were enrolled in this study. CPT-11 (60 mg/m2) in 500 m/5% glucose was given intravenously on Days 1, 8, and 15, before cisplatin (60 mg/m2) in 500 ml normal saline. The treatment was repeated every 4 weeks for 2 or 3 cycles. All patients were evaluable for response and toxicity. Two achieved a clinical complete response (CR), 11 had a partial response (PR), 2 had no change (NC) and 1 had progressive disease (PD), for an overall response of 81.3%. Neutropenia was observed in 100% (> grade 3: 70.6%) and diarrhea was recorded in 55.9% (> grade 3: 5.9%). The combination of CPT-11 and cisplatin in locally advanced cervical cancer is thus an active regimen with a manageable toxicity as a neoadjuvant chemotherapy.