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Radiotherapy of Cancer of the Cervix Uteri

Radiotherapy has been very greatly advanced by its success against the malignant conditions peculiar to women. Cancers of the breast and uterus respond particularly well to the application of radium and X rays. In a recent editorial we showed that the results of radium in cancer of the breast compared very favourably with the results of surgery. Recent reports from the Mount Vernon and Marie Curie Hospitals, and papers read at the British Medical Association Centenary Meeting, show that for cancer of the cervix uteri radiological measures have by now actually overtaken and passed the best that the surgeon can do.

On the whole, gynaecologists prefer to combine radium and X rays, but evidence is not lacking that either of these measures alone can produce results which command respect. Reports of cervical cancer treated by X rays alone come chiefly from Erlangen, where the technique was developed on account of the difficulty of obtaining supplies of radium during the War. Where pure X-ray technique is understood and thoroughly carried out, an absolute cure rate of 20·9 per cent has been obtained. At the Marie Curie Hospital 472 in-patients and 194 out-patients were treated during the year 1931, almost exclusively by radium. Of 587 cases of cancer of the cervix treated in the previous six years by a modified Stockholm technique using two or three flat applicators, 342 were alive at the end of 1931.