Treatment failure sites according to irradiation technique and histology in patients with endometrial cancer

Three hundred and seventy-two patients with endometrial cancer treated from 1948 through 1969 and having complete follow-up were reviewed. All patients completed definitive therapy with preoperative irradiation and surgery or irradiation alone and have separated into two main groups: 1) those treated with irradiation by radium alone or 2) those treated with external irradiation plus diminished amounts of radium. Pathology material from each patient was reviewed by one pathologist. Treatment by radium alone led to fewer pelvic failures than did external irradiation plus diminished amounts of radium, when evaluated by stage, grade, and specific histology. Both irradiation modalities led to about the same incidence of failures due to distant metastasis only.