[Pyometra and radiotherapy of cancer of the uterine cervix--analysis of 282 patients].

From March 1958 to December 1980, 11284 patients with cancer of uterine cervix were treated with radiotherapy in our hospital. Among them, 282 were complicated with pyometra with an incidence of 2.5%. The incidence of pyometra was higher in patients treated by combined intracavitary with external irradiation than by other radiation methods. 74.1% was diagnosed during the manipulation of intracavitary therapy. Escherichia coli comprised 46.5% by culture. The 5 year survival rate was lower in patients with pyometra than without it. The patients who had a temperature over 38 degrees C and uterus enlarged to more than 6 weeks of pregnancy had a bad prognosis. It was even worse for patients whose pyometra did not heal or developed at the end of radiation. Endometrial biopsy was done in 36 patients with pyometra and cancer cells were seen in 55.6% of them. Endometrial biopsy positive rate reached to 77.8% in the patients whose pyometra was not cured or occurred after radiotherapy. This is the main reason of the poor prognosis. The authors believe that endometrial and cervical biopsy should be taken for cancer of uterine cervix complicated with pyometra; for biopsy positive patients during the treatment, the intracavitary dose should be increased; for positive patients after radiotherapy, operation is strongly indicated.