Abstract
From 1970 to 1976, 91 patients with St. I-II endometrial carcinoma associated with a small uterine cavity (≤9 cm) were treated with the Cathetron (C) and 125 with radium (R). Surgery was carried out on 59.3% of the patients in group C and 80.0% in group R two weeks after the intracavitary radiotherapy and 56.0% of the patients in group C and 39.2% in group R received external irradiation with or without an operation. There was no statistical difference in the survival between the two treatment groups, the 5-year crude survival being 79.4% for group C and 82.4% for group R, and the 3-year crude survival rates 82.4% and 88.0% respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the local recurrence of tumour between group C (3.3%) and R (0%); nor were the rates of early complications different, 3.3% in group C against 4.0% in group R. No differences were found in operative difficulties or early postoperative morbidity between the two groups during or after hysterectomies and bilateral salping-ooophorectomies after intracavitary radiotherapy.