[The value of preoperative intracavitary radiation in uterine carcinoma]

The analysis comprised 240 uterine carcinomas: 145 carcinomas of the cervix and 95 carcinomas of the corpus uteri. Preoperatively 100 patients--57 with the carcinoma of the cervix and 43 with the carcinoma of the uterine body--were radiated with Co60 intracavitary. In the first stage of the carcinoma of the cervix a five-year survival in primarily operated patients amounted to 74.30% and in the group of preoperatively intracavitary radiated patients to 83%. In patients with the stage I carcinoma of the corpus uteri a five-year survival proved to be 69.57% if primarily operated and 93.75% if preoperatively radiated. Local relapses were recorded in 33 patients surgically treated for carcinoma of the uterine cervix and in 9 patients surgically treated for the carcinoma of the uterine body. In both these localizations the relapses were more frequent in the group primarily operated patients: in patients with the primarily operated carcinoma of the cervix the relapses occurred in 20.69% and in preoperatively radiated patients in 3.4% of cases. The same observations were recorded in the carcinoma of the corpus uteri (11.51% : 6.97%). This means that the relapses were six times as frequent in patients with the primarily operated carcinoma of the uterine cervix and about 1.65 times as frequent in those with the primarily operated carcinoma of the corpus uteri as in intracavitary radiated patients.