Emerging therapeutic agents for cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is the second most frequent malignancy affecting women worldwide. The highest incidences occur in the developing world, where, in most countries, cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in women. Although surgery and chemoradiotherapy can cure 80-95% of women with early stage cancer and 60% of locoregionally advanced cancer, the recurrent and metastatic disease remains a major cause of cancer death. The current cytotoxic treatment options for advanced and metastatic cancer demonstrate modest results, with response rates of maximum 30% and overall survival of less than 10 months. Given this limited degree of success with conventional therapies, interest has increased in other therapeutic alternatives. In this way, targeted agents are emerging as potential candidates for improving survival in cervical cancer patients. In this review we highlight the main current therapeutic strategies for cervical cancer and summarize the most relevant patents from the latest five years. Special attention was given to patents with potential applications in the clinical practice.