What are the targeted drugs for cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is the most common gynecological malignancy. The most common age for carcinoma in situ is 30 to 35 years old, and for invasive carcinoma it is 45 to 55 years old. In recent years, there has been a trend of younger age of onset. The widespread use of cervical cytology screening in recent decades has enabled cervical cancer and precancerous lesions to be detected and treated in the early stages, and the incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer have been significantly reduced. Let’s discuss what targeted drugs are there for cervical cancer?

1. Bevacizumab

Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that targets VEGF-A, the expression of which increases in advanced cervical cancer. For recurrent and progressive cervical cancer, adding bevacizumab to chemotherapy can increase the overall survival by 3.7 months. It was based on these results that bevacizumab was approved for use in combination with radiation therapy to treat cervical cancer.

2. Pazopanib

Pazopanib is an oral small molecule water-targeted anti-angiogenic drug. Pazopanib has multiple targets, including VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, VEGFR-3, PDGFR-a and c-kit. Pazopanib is currently in clinical trials for several tumor types and is currently FDA-approved for use in renal cell carcinoma.

3. TOR retarder

mTOR is located in a very central position and is the intersection of many signaling pathways (Ras, PI3K/Akt, TSC, NF-kB). Therefore, inhibiting mTOR by rapamycin and its analogs can control the proliferation of tumor cells with abnormalities in multiple signaling pathways. The mTOR signaling pathway is activated in cervical cancer.

4. Immune checkpoint inhibitors/hormonal regulatory factors

Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as PD-1 drugs are a popular treatment method recently. There are also studies on the treatment of cervical cancer. At present, there is no relatively comprehensive and systematic data released. The treatment of cervical cancer with PD-1 drugs is still in the clinical stage, but studies have shown that the expression of PD-L1 in cervical cancer tumor cells and surrounding inflammatory cells is increased, which suggests that PD-1 antigen may be effective. Currently, several immune checkpoint inhibitors are in the clinical stage.