Carcinoma of the uterine cervix: Interval report on treatment, results, and complications

Abstract

Eleven hundred and eleven consecutive, previously untreated, pathologically confirmable cases of cancer of the uterine cervix are reviewed. The percentages of patients who were alive five years after first treatment are as follows: 1902 to 1913, 12; 1914 to 1918, 19; 1919 to 1923, 23; 1924 to 1928, 28; 1929 to 1933, 38; 1934 to 1938, 43. The percentages of patients alive at ten years in the same groups to 1934 are: 7, 11, 12, 21, and 29. The percentages of patients alive at fifteen years to 1929 are: 7, 9, 8, and 15. The improved results are due for the most part to the use of radium and x-rays. Seventy-one per cent of the patients alive five years after treatment were alive at ten years, and 75 per cent of those alive at ten years were alive at fifteen years.Two patients had proved recurrence between thirteen and fourteen years after irradiation.Deaths, early and late, from treatment and intercurrent disease are listed. Complications and their treatment are given considerable attention, since they are such an important part of radiation therapy.Four patients had another primary cancer at the time that of the cervix was treated and six later developed primary malignancies, two of which occurred in organs previously irradiated, namely, bladder and rectum.Of the whole series of 1,111 patients, 5.2 per cent had had a previous supravaginal hysterectomy and 2.7 per cent more had had tubes or ovaries or both removed or tubal ligation.