Cervical Cancer Awareness Month: 2022 Immunotherapy Research Updates

In 2020, the World Health Organization launched the Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative with three pillars: 90% of girls vaccinated by age 15; 70% of women screened by age 35; and 90% of women with pre-cancer managed or with cancer treated.

The Cancer Research Institute is proud to have contributed to this effort through its support of Dr. Ian Frazer’s work leading to the first HPV vaccine. High HPV vaccination rates in several countries have already resulted in drops of cervical cancer rates, and expanding HPV vaccine availability globally will save many more lives in future. Meanwhile, we continue to support research into new therapies to effectively treat this cancer.

This January for Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, we look at new research, new treatments, and how we’re working toward a future immune to cervical cancer.

Gynecologic Cancers Treatment Update

At the 2021 CRI Virtual Immunotherapy Patient Summit, Dr. Dmitriy Zamarin of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center discussed immunotherapy clinical trials and answered questions about cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers. He also answered follow-up questions after the event.

Cancer Scientist Spotlight

As one of the two study chairs of the CRI-funded clinical trial “A Phase 1 Study to Evaluate MEDI4736 in Combination With Tremelimumab” (NCT01975831), Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., is examining combinations of two checkpoint immunotherapies in patients diagnosed with breast, cervical, colorectal, kidney, and ovarian cancers.

Learn more about the clinical trial

Immunotherapy for Cervical Cancer Info Update

The FDA approved two new immunotherapy treatments for cervical cancer in 2021: the antibody-drug conjugate tisotumab vedotin (Tivdak) and the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda). As the research and treatment landscape evolves, we keep our information up to date.

Read Cervical Cancer Update

Find a Cervical Cancer Clinical Trial

A variety of new and promising cancer immunotherapy treatments are only available to patients in clinical trials. Help speed the development of potentially lifesaving drugs. Discover trials for which you or a loved one may be eligible with the CRI Immunotherapy Clinical Trial Finder.

Find a Cancer Clinical Trial

Support Cervical Cancer Research

CRI-Hearst Foundation Fellow Susan Klaeger, Ph.D., of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard contributed to the construction of a new comprehensive database of previously unidentified mutated tumor proteins. These mutant proteins, which arise in genomic regions known as nuORFs, could provide an important source of targets for personalized cancer immunotherapies, including vaccines and cell therapies. This Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, support lifesaving cancer immunotherapy research.

Donate to cervical cancer research