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HPV Vaccine Linked to Decline in Precancerous Cervical Lesions

Incidence of precancerous lesions that can lead to cervical cancer in young women has dropped by 80% since the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was approved in 2006, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The HPV vaccine, which protects against the forms of HPV that most commonly cause cervical cancer, was first approved for girls and young women ages 9 to 26 in 2006 and has since been approved for women up to age 45 and boys and men ages 9 to 45. The U.S Preventive Services Task Force recommends children receive the vaccine at age 11 or 12. Researchers used national health data to monitor the prevalence of precancerous cervical lesions from 2008 to 2022, the Associated Press reported. They found the incidence of lesions grade 2 or higher and adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) in women ages 20 to 24 decreased by 79.5% over that time period, while the rate of grade 3 lesions and AIS dropped by 80.3%. Researchers said the results support the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine. “This should reassure parents that they’re doing the right thing in getting their children vaccinated against HPV,” Jane Montealegre, a cancer prevention researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who was not involved in the study, told the Associated Press.

FDA Approves Monoclonal Antibody to Treat Esophageal Cancer

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the monoclonal antibody Tevimbra (tislelizumab) to be used with chemotherapy for initial treatment of adults with unresectable or metastatic esophageal cancer that expresses the PD-L1 protein. The approval was based on results of a phase III clinical trial that were published May 2023 in the Lancet Oncology. In the trial, 649 people with unresectable or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) received standard chemotherapy and were randomly assigned to take either Tevimbra or a placebo. Median overall survival was 17.2 months for people who received Tevimbra, compared with 10.6 months for those who had a placebo, OncLive reported. Additionally, after one year, 30% of the Tevimbra group had seen no disease progression, compared with 15.7% of the placebo group. Among participants receiving Tevimbra, the most common side effects that were considered severe or life-threatening were low white blood cell counts and anemia. “The approval of Tevimbra in combination with chemotherapy for adult patients with ESCC expands first-line treatment options for patients with this disease,” Nataliya Uboha, a medical oncologist at the Carbone Cancer Center in Madison, Wisconsin, said in a press release. “There is a critical need for effective treatments of ESCC, and Tevimbra has been shown to improve outcomes in this patient population.”

Chemotherapy, Endocrine Therapy Have Different Long-term Health Impacts

People with breast cancer who receive chemotherapy are more likely to experience long-term physical health declines than people who receive endocrine therapy, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers followed 2,566 women with nonmetastatic breast cancer, along with 12,826 women without breast cancer. Among the women with breast cancer, 47.7% received endocrine therapy, 10.8% received chemotherapy and 24.7% had both, the ASCO Post reported. At the outset of the study and at two subsequent points, participants completed surveys about their physical health, which covered fatigue, pain, physical function and ability to perform daily activities. Two years after their diagnoses, the responses from women with breast cancer showed that they experienced a greater decline in physical health than women without cancer. However, beyond that point, only participants who received chemotherapy reported worse physical health decline than women without cancer. “This is encouraging news for breast cancer survivors. If they do not receive chemotherapy, it is unlikely that they will have long-lasting physical health decline,” Clara Bodelon, the study’s lead author and a survivorship researcher at the American Cancer Society, said in a press release. “However, further studies are needed to confirm these results and to better understand the health consequences of these treatments.”