SURGICAL TREATMENT OF CARCINOMA OF THE CERVIX, RECURRENT AFTER IRRADIATION OR COMBINATION OF IRRADIATION AND SURGERY

¹ From Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York, New York; and the James Ewing Hospital of the City of New York

The reported study is based upon 991 unselected patients with presumptive evidence of postradiation recurrences. In the series, 14 per cent did not actually have cancer. Of the remaining 853 with recurrence, 443 (44 per cent) were found to be operable. In 125 of these patients, less than pelvic exenterative operations were performed and 50 (40 per cent) lived 5 years. Of the 318 patients who underwent exenterations, 56 (17.6 per cent) survived at least 5 years free of disease.

The above series was comprised of a patient population cared for by outside physicians usually not cognizant of the potentialities of surgery for initial radiation treatment failure in cases of cancer of the cervix. Thus, better results might have been obtained had secondary surgical treatment not been delayed as long as it was in most instances.

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