The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new treatment for late-stage cervical cancer.
The treatment is a combination of the drugs Hycamtin and Cisplatin, and is approved for women with incurable, recurrent or persistent cancer of the cervix that has spread to other organs. The combination is the first time a treatment has been recommended for late-stage cervical cancer.
The FDA originally approved Hycamtin in 1996 for treating ovarian cancer and in 1998 for small-cell lung cancer.
FDA officials say the drug therapy is not a cure, but a potentially life-prolonging option for thousands of women.
Earlier this month, the FDA approved the first vaccine to protect women and girls from contracting the disease.
Each year, about 10,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in American women and there are 3,700 related deaths. Some 300,000 women die of the disease each year worldwide.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
