Radiotherapy combined with surgery as treatment for advanced cervical cancer.

Experience obtained in a group of 44 patients with advanced cervical cancer is reported here. In this study, patients with residual cancer underwent laparotomy eight weeks after one or two different radiotherapy protocols. Sixty-eight percent of patients underwent radical surgery, 85% of patients pelvic exenterations, and 15% radical hysterectomies. In 27% of patients, no evidence of residual cancer was found in surgical specimens. Radical surgery was well tolerated, and one-third of patients were free of disease for one year or more. Control of disease was obtained in 50% of pelvic exenterations and in 60% of radical hysterectomies, regardless of prognosis, clinical stage or radiotherapy scheme. Although results show an improvement of up to 22% when comparing this to other more conventional treatments, we have concluded that we must obtain a wider experience in order to support our findings.