Operative treatment of advanced cervical cancer after full pelvic irradiation.

We present three patients with advanced carcinoma of the uterine cervix treated with full pelvic irradiation followed by surgery 21-37 weeks after the radiation therapy. In two cases chemotherapy was given after radiotherapy due to clinical or radiological residual disease. Postoperative treatment was dependent on histological examination of the surgical specimens. If indicated chemotherapy was started or continued after surgery. No major operative complications were noticed in these three patients in spite of full preoperative pelvic radiation. The information obtained from these operations was valuable in determining the further treatment of the patients. All three patients are clinically disease free at the moment, but longer follow-up will show if this treatment modality can increase survival of advanced carcinoma of the uterine cervix.