Study: HIV drug can treat cervical cancer

PHOTO | FILE Ms Christine Otieno, who works on HIV prevention at Kenyatta National Hospital, with the drugs which health experts warn are increasingly being abused by sexually active youth. A Study has revealed that an HIV drug, Lopinavir, can treat cervical cancer.

What you need to know:

  • Go for early screening, women told
  • The trial was carried out by a team of Kenyan and UK-based researchers at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi and involved 40 women infected with high and low-grade pre-cancerous disease of the cervix.
  • Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai is among prominent personalities who have died from the disease.

The first ever clinical trial of a drug to treat cervical cancer shows potential for curing the disease, which kills 300,000 women annually.

The trial was carried out by a team of Kenyan and UK-based researchers at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi and involved 40 women infected with high and low-grade pre-cancerous disease of the cervix.

They were treated with a drug known as Lopinavir, which is currently used in treating HIV.

Speaking while releasing the findings of the study during a press conference at the hospital, the local site principal investigator, Dr Orora Maranga and co-investigator, Dr Peter Gichangi, said the drug — normally used orally in treating HIV — was self-applied directly to the cervix.

“Although further work is still needed, it looks as though this might be a potential treatment to stop early-stage cervical cancer caused by human papilloma virus (HPV).

"However, at this stage, we would like to appeal to women to undergo early screening of cervix cancer which is the leading killer among women in Kenya,” Dr Maranga said.

He said data from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Nairobi Cancer Registry) shows cervical cancer kills 3,000 women per year in the country.

“However, this is just the tip of the ice-berg as these are the reported cases in our public hospitals,” Dr Maranga, who is a consultant obstetrician/ gynaecologist at KNH, noted.

Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai is among prominent personalities who have died from the disease.

Cervical cancer is caused by infection with HPV and is more than five times more prevalent in East Africa than in the UK.

In many developing countries, HPV-related cervical cancer is still one of the most common cancer among women, accounting for about 290,000 deaths annually.

Speaking at the Press conference, KNH chief executive Lily Tare said the researchers had been given the necessary ethical and other approvals before embarking on the study at the hospital.

“We are proud of the involvement of our doctors in the treatment of our women during this study. As KNH, we shall continue to encourage more research at this hospital as we strive to fulfil our mandate as a world-class medical institution,” Ms Tare added.