The management of primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube. Experience of 40 cases.

Forty patients with primary tubal cancer were treated at the Middlesex and Mount Vernon Hospitals between 1951 and 1981. Actuarial 5-year survival was seen in 68% of 10 Stage I cases, 39% of 17 Stage II cases, and 21% of 11 Stage III cases, and this experience is consistent with other reported postwar series. The disease was found to exhibit some similarity to ovarian cancer in terms of its mode of spread and response to radiation and cytotoxic agents. Transcoelomic spread was identified as the major cause of treatment failure, and management proposals have been structured around its detection and treatment.