[Surgery or radiotherapy for cervical carcinoma stage IIb].

134 cases of cervical cancer of the clinical stage IIb were examined with regard to the five-year survival rate. The report covers the time from 1964 to 1976. The patients had either been operated on primarily or had primarily undergone irradiation treatment. The five-year survival rates for the first group amount to 57.69% (n = 78), for the second group to 42.86% (n = 56). This difference is not significant under the restriction of limited comparability because of the different age of the patients. 65.38% (abs.: 51 from 78) of the operated cases turned out to be clinically overestimated cases of cervical cancer of the histological stages Ib, Ic and IIa. 27 cases belonged to the clinical and histological stage IIb and for this group of patients the five-year survival rate was 29.62% only. This and a number of other factors--the narrowing of the site of the operation with the growing danger for the ureter, increasingly affected lymphatic nodes--would justify restraint concerning surgical treatment of stage IIb.