Cervical cancer is a cancer that is completely curable if detected early. Unfortunately, the chemotherapy used in most cases weakens the body so much that it is necessary to reduce the dose of the drug. German researchers have developed a method that allows the drug to be applied directly to changed cells.
Standard chemotherapy is toxic to both cancerous and normal cells. Unfortunately, the side effects it causes (e.g. nausea) make it necessary to reduce the dose of the drug administered. A much better solution is to use the so-called targeting therapy.
Haifeng Xu from Germany’s Leibniz Institute and colleagues are experimenting with the use of sperm to deliver drugs to a woman’s reproductive system. The sperm were “loaded” with a typical chemotherapeutic agent, doxorubicin, and released onto a plate containing miniature tumors composed of cervical cancer cells. The spermatozoa reached the tumors and destroyed 87% of them. their cells in three days.
The researchers then equipped the sperm with tiny magnetic ‘harnesses’ that could be steered by a magnetic field.
According to Xu, such “remote controlled” sperm cells could also be used in the treatment of other gynecological diseases, such as endometriosis and ectopic pregnancies.
Cervical cancer can be beaten
Cervical cancer is estimated to have resulted in the death of five women in Poland every day. The disease is a consequence of infection with the human papillomavirus HPV, especially its highly carcinogenic types HPV16, HPV18, and belongs to malignant neoplasms.
In the initial stage, cervical cancer does not cause any symptoms, which, unfortunately, does not require an immediate visit to the gynecologist. One of the first symptoms of cervical cancer is bleeding: bleeding between periods, after intercourse or gynecological examination, bleeding after menopause. There may also be bloody discharge with an unpleasant odor. At a later stage, when a significant tumor growth has already occurred, pain in the lower abdomen and the lumbosacral area may appear. Leg swelling and difficulty urinating may also occur. The method of treatment depends on the stage of the disease. In less severe cases, chemotherapy or radiotherapy is used. In more serious cases, the so-called hysterectomy, i.e. removal of the uterus. When the lesions are very extensive, the top of the vagina and surrounding lymph nodes are also excised.
Cervical cancer found in its initial stage, i.e. the pre-invasive stage, is almost completely curable. At this stage, it is asymptomatic, and its detection is determined by systematic, preventive cytological tests. On the other hand, treatment of cervical cancer, undertaken when the cancer is already in stage II, gives only 50 percent. chances of therapy success and, as a result, survival. These chances decrease the more advanced the cancer is.