[Primary combined radiotherapy of carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Comparison of 192Ir with radium].

A retrospective study of primary irradiated carcinomas of the uterine cervix was made in order to compare the effect of radium with the effect of a 192Ir afterloading therapy with high dose rate which had been introduced 2 1/2 years before. A group of 31 patients treated with iridium was opposed to a historical control group of 24 patients treated with radium. Both groups were submitted to the same method of simultaneous percutaneous irradiation. All consecutively treated patients exposed to a percutaneous focal dose of greater than 45 Gy were evaluated. The iridium and radium doses applied as well as the values measured in intestine and bladder are presented. The iridium group had the same or a slightly less favorable prognosis (prognostic factors compared: stage, percutaneous dose, histology, age) than the radium group. The remission rates were identical for both therapy methods. Patients treated with iridium have a slightly better curve of recurrence-free interval and survival time, even taking into consideration the shorter observation period. Two out of the patients treated with iridium and four out of those treated with radium presented severe long-term side effects with formation of fistulas (average incidence 12,5 months and 12,7 months after the beginning of therapy, respectively).