Para-aortic nodal irradiation in the treatment of carcinoma of the uterine cervix

Twenty-two patients with previously untreated carcinoma of the uterine cervix were treated by para-aortic nodal irradiation for the macroscopical metastases found at the operation with or without pathological confirmation, at the National Cancer Center Hospital from 1962 to 1980. The irradiation was given with 6 MeV X rays. Total doses ranged from 42 to 99 with an average of 69 in Time Dose Fractionation factors. All of the patients died of the tumor within 42 months. The initial site of relapse was intrapelvic for two patients, extrapelvic for 18, and both intra- and extrapelvic for two. Of 12 patients upon whom autopsies were performed, only one of the patients who had multiple metastatic tumors of less than 1 cm in maximum diameter had the tumor controlled in the irradiated region. (author)