Treatment for advanced cervical cancer: impact on quality of life

Cisplatin-based combinations can potentially improve response rates in patients with cervical cancer, but unacceptable toxicity must be avoided. Quality of life (QoL) measures are increasingly used to assess the benefits versus limitations of chemotherapy regimens. A MEDLINE search of English language publications from January 2000 to December 2008 was conducted using the search terms: 'quality of life' OR 'QoL' OR 'HRQoL' AND 'cervical cancer'. Abstracts from the Association of Clinical Oncology meeting, 2008, were also searched. Article inclusion was based on abstract content. Several cervical cancer therapies have shown response rate improvements in combination with cisplatin, including topotecan and paclitaxel. However, only topotecan/cisplatin demonstrates a significant overall survival advantage over cisplatin monotherapy, while both topotecan/cisplatin and paclitaxel/cisplatin demonstrate comparable impact on QoL to cisplatin alone. Few trials of combination chemotherapy for cervical cancer have directly assessed QoL. The combination of topotecan/cisplatin significantly increases overall survival rates without reducing patient QoL.