[Results of surgical treatment of stage IIb cervix cancer]

A total of 506 cases of cervix cancer, Stage Ib and IIb, operated according to Wertheim-Meigs were retrospectively (1972-1986) evaluated with their clinical and morphological aspects. After 1978 a more intensive histological evaluation of the specimen was performed, resulting in the examination of a large number of pelvic lymph nodes. The amount of lymph nodes infiltrated depends on tumour stage, invasion depth, regional lymphovascular invasion of the tumour edge and parametria, and on haemangiosis carcinomatosa. Stage pT2b cervical cancers survived five years in 81% of cases, when lymph nodes were not involved--in 69% (1-3 infiltrated l.n.) and 64% (3 infiltrated l.n.) of cases with positive lymph nodes. The five-year survival rates were further determined by the parametrial infiltration and the number of positive pelvic lymph nodes. If neither the parametria nor the lymph nodes are infiltrated by the tumor the survival rate is 96% whereas in cases of lymphovascular invasion of the parametria without infiltrated lymph nodes the rate decreases to 79%; in cases in tumor infiltration of both lymph nodes and parametria the cure rates are worst (62%). The operation of cervical cancer of Stages Ib and IIb with a thorough histological evaluation of the excised tissue therefore has a high prognostic value, but it also probably has better cure rates than is the case with radiological treatment.