DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2023.v11i01.024

Pages: 156-163

Background: Cervical cancer is the primary cause of cancer death in women in Bangladesh and other underdeveloped nations. The globe is now searching for the best therapy for locally progressed squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. Objective: To compare the effectiveness of concurrent chemoradiation with cisplatin and capecitabine in locoregionally advanced carcinoma cervix. Methods: A quasi experimental study was carried out among 60 patients of locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of cervix at Radiation Oncology Department of National Institute of Cancer Research & Hospital, Dhaka from July 2016 to June 2017. Patients were accrued to arm A and arm B purposively to receive inj. cisplatin 40 mg/m2 IV infusion weekly and capecitabine, 825 mg/m2 twice daily 5 days a week along with external-beam radiotherapy and intracavitary brachytherapy respectively. Results: The study was designed to compare the effectiveness of concurrent chemoradiation with cisplatin and capecitabine in locoregionally advanced carcinoma cervix. The mean age of the arm A patients was 47.43 (SD ± 6.11) years and that of the arm B patients was 48.2 (SD ± 5.78) years. Almost identical numbers of patients in both arms had shown complete responses (CR) (arm A 76.7% and arm B 80%), partial responses (PR) (arm A 13.3% and arm B 10%), stable diseases (SD) (3.3%) and progressive diseases (PD). Frequency of toxicities related to treatment was significantly less pronounced in capecitabine arm than cisplatin arm. Conclusion: Uterine cervix, capecitabine-based concurrent chemo radiation was not inferior to weekly cisplatin- based concurrent chemo radiation in terms of ultimate result. More critically, capecitabine's toxicity was less severe than cisplatin's. Because of this, using them together may be an effective therapy strategy. However, capecitabine is well tolerated and has a low harmful effect.