Clinical implications for cediranib in advanced cervical cancer

For decades, the management of women with recurrent or persistent cervical cancer not amenable to surgery and women who present with metastatic disease has constituted a high unmet clinical need, with platinum-based chemotherapy being palliative and associated with short-lived responses, rapid deterioration in quality of life, and early death (median overall survival 7–12 months).1 Some progress has been made following the publication of the phase 3 randomised Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) 240 trial;1 patients who received the anti-angiogenic drug bevacizumab in addition to chemotherapy had a significant overall survival advantage over those who did not (median 17 months vs 13·3 months; HR 0·71 [98% CI 0·54–0·95]; p=0·004).