AUTHOR=Liu Yuncong , Wu Li , Tong Ruizhan , Yang Feiyue , Yin Limei , Li Mengqian , You Liting , Xue Jianxin , Lu You TITLE=PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors in Cervical Cancer JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology VOLUME=10 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.00065 DOI=10.3389/fphar.2019.00065 ISSN=1663-9812 ABSTRACT=

Cervical cancer is one of the most common gynecological tumors, and the majority of early-stage cervical cancer patients achieve good recovery through surgical treatment and concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). However, for patients with recurrent, persistent, metastatic cervical cancer, effective treatment is rare, except for bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy. Programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors might be a novel choice to improve the clinical outcomes of these patients. Thus far, some pivotal trials, including Keynote 028, Keynote 158 and Checkmate 358, have indicated established clinical benefit of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in cervical cancer. In light of these data, the FDA has approved pembrolizumab for patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer with disease progression during or after chemotherapy. There are also some ongoing studies that may provide more evidence for the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway as a therapeutic target in cervical cancer. In this review, we have summarized the status and application of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in clinical trials for the treatment of cervical cancer and suggested some future directions in this field.