A platinum-based molecule can offer considerable improvements in the treatment of patients with cervical cancer, according to new research.

Dr Paul Symonds from the Department of Cancer Studies and Molecule Medicine at the University of Leicester studied case histories on 1,412 patients collected between 2001 and 2002.

He measured the use of cisplatin, which affects DNA strands within cancerous cells, in combination with radiotherapy against tests involving radiotherapy alone.

Although the better results of adopting the former method were already known to represent an improvement, the long-term effects of the treatment were less certain.

However, Dr Symonds, supported by colleagues in London and Manchester and the Medical Research Council, noted that the combination technique reduced the likelihood of death in cervical cancer patients by 23 per cent.

The findings are now set to be published in the September issue of the publication Clinical Oncology.

Dr Symonds said: "The addition of cisplatin to radiation has literally saved the lives of hundreds of women with locally advanced cancer in the east midlands.

"What the national audit has shown is that the addition of cisplatin improves survival. As this is curative treatment we can genuinely say that this is a reduction in the odds of death."

Platinum-based chemotherapies have been tested on a wide range of cancer patients in recent years, such as those with small cell lung cancer.

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Significant advance announced in treatment of cervical cancer (20/08/10)

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