Abstract
Forty-nine patients aged ≤ 45 years, with cervical carcinoma stage iB≤ 3 cm) were treated with either primary radical surgery (n = 26). or intracavitary irradiation followed by radical surgery (n = 23). With primary surgery, ovarian function had been preserved in 15 of the 25 patients, who were alive and well. Seven of the primary surgery patients were irradiated postoperatively and 2 others with a central recurrence were cured by irradiation. One other patient, who was not irradiated postoperatively, had an intestinal metastasis and died of the disease. If any of the adverse prognostic factors (as reported in the literature) had been considered as an indication for postoperative irradiation, 17 patients instead of 7 would have been irradiated after primary radical surgery. In the comparable group of 23 patients treated by intracavitary irradiation and radical surgery (and in cases postoperative irradiation as well) there was no recurrence. There was no significant statistical difference between the treatment results in the cesium +