Complications of combined radical hysterectomy-postoperative radiation therapy in women with early stage cervical cancer.

Fifty patients with cervical cancer were treated with radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy followed by postoperative radiation therapy for high risk factors (nodal metastases, lymphvascular space invasion, close or involved margins) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center from 1969 to 1984. Fifteen (30%) of the patients treated had serious complications, 8 (16%) requiring an operation, and 1 (2%) dying as a result of treatment-related problems. This combined modality approach is associated with significant complications.