[Diagnostic value of vaginal mouldings in uterine cancer (author's transl)]

Vaginal mouldings were originally introduced as applicators for uterovaginal radium therapy. After 13 years of experience with this method in the Gustave-Roussy Institute we have found that it is also of great value for diagnostic purposes: it enables the site of the uterine cervical and vaginal lesions to be determined in a more precise manner; areas of invasion of the vagina can be detected which would normally not have been found, either because of the difficulty of performing previous investigations, or because of the extremely superficial nature of certain vaginal lesions: the extent of invasion and the subsequent therapeutic approach can then be radically modified; objective records can be kept in the form of photographs which can be compared with any future mouldings. The vaginal moulding can, in fact, be used as a diagnostic tool during supervision of the patients, when there is the least suspicion of an abnormal finding.