Locally advanced cervical cancer: Better odds using personalized brachytherapy

Cervical cancer is the cancer with the fourth highest mortality rate among women worldwide. Locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) is treated with a combination of external and internal radiotherapy (brachytherapy) and chemotherapy. For the first time, a study conducted by a research group at the Comprehensive Cancer Centre Vienna of MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital using data from the multicentre EMBRACE-I trial demonstrated the superiority of a targeted approach in brachytherapy. The results have just been published online in the highly respected Journal of Clinical Oncology and are the basis for customized treatment for patients. Brachytherapy is a special radiotherapy/radiation oncology procedure in which a so-called applicator is inserted directly into or in the immediate vicinity of the tumour as part of a minimally invasive procedure, and the tumour is then irradiated internally by computerized remote control. The Embrace-I study, initiated and managed at the Department of Radiation Oncology at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital at the Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna, personalizes brachytherapy for cervical cancer as part of an international consortium with 24 centres in Europe, Asia and North America. Instead of the -classic- brachytherapy for cervical cancer - the same dose for everyone, regardless of the individual tumor spread - the basis for an innovative personalized treatment concept was defined.