Treatment of advanced cancers of the cervix uteri with external irradiation alone

The five year survival rates of 150 patients who were treated by external irradiation alone for cancers of the cervix uteri are presented. Intracavitary radium therapy had been rejected as inappropriate in all of them on account of the size and type of spread of the tumor. The average age of the selected patients was considerably higher than that of control groups. Results and incidence of side-effects are comparable with those obtained by radium-telecobalt therapy; however, rectovaginal/vesicovaginal fistulas as a reaction to radiation treatment did not occur.