Comparison of the clinical efficacy of paclitaxel + carboplatin and paclitaxel + cisplatin on tumor markers and WHOQOL-BREF score on cervical cancer patients

This study aims to compare tumor marker indicators, World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief assessment (WHOQOL-BREF) scores and clinical outcomes between cervical cancer patients treated with paclitaxel + carboplatin versus those treated with paclitaxel + cisplatin. 66 cervical cancer patients admitted to our hospital were randomly selected and allocated equally into a control group (paclitaxel + cisplatin) and a study group (paclitaxel + carboplatin) using a randomized double-blinded approach. Tumor marker indices, WHOQOL-BREF scores, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scores, clinical outcomes and adverse effects were assessed and compared before and after treatment. The study group was found to have lower carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), Carbohydrate antigen (CA) 199, CA125 and CA50 levels, significantly higher WHOQOL-BREF scores, and significantly higher KPS scores at 7 days, 1 month, 2 months and 3 months post-treatment compared to the control group (all p < 0.05). However, we also observed that while the treatment effectiveness rate in the study group (75.76%) surpassed that in the control group (66.67%), the difference was statistically significant (p > 0.05). Patients in the study group had a statistically significant lower incidence of diarrhea (45.45%) and nausea and vomiting (48.48%) compared to the control group, whose corresponding rates were higher at 69.70% and 75.76%, respectively (χ2 = 3.969, 5.215, p = 0.046, 0.022). Conversely, the incidence of bone marrow suppression in the study group (48.48%) was significantly higher than that in the control group (21.21%) (χ2 = 4.405, p = 0.020). We conclude that the combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin was an effective treatment approach for cervical cancer patients, offering comparative advantages over paclitaxel + cisplatin, with reduced tumor marker levels, enhanced quality of life, and minimized adverse reaction occurrence.

Paclitaxel; Carboplatin; Cisplatin; Cervical cancer; Therapeutic efficacy; Tumor marker levels

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