[Primary surgery in the treatment of stage I and "slight" stage II carcinoma of the cervix (author's transl)].

A group of 140 patients with stage I and "slight" stage II invasive carcinoma of the cervix undergoing surgery without prior irradiation between October 1st and October 31st 1978 is presented. The 5 year survival rate, taking into account the actual characteristics of the series, corresponded to the average usually found. Primary surgery makes it possible to limit indications for irradiation to cases where there exists either true infiltration of pelvic tissue or lymph node metastases which can be assessed only by examination of an operative specimen. It is thus also possible to avoid "radiotherapy menopause" in a large number of women (in 68 of the 81 patients aged less than 50 years in the present series).