Efficacy of primary radiation in carcinoma of the endometrium. Five-year follow up of unselected material from a specific region in the north of Sweden.
A case material from the northern part of Sweden comprising all known cases of carcinoma of the endometrium during the years 1963-1969 is presented. A clinical experiment has been carried out in which 320 patients with carcinoma of the endometrium have been uniformly treated. The patients have been given primary radiation treatment, mostly with radium packing according to a modified Heyman method. About two thirds of the patients have had a prophylactic operation with total removal of the uterus and the adnexa about six weeks after the radiation treatment. Patients with contraindications to surgery have had a curettage three months after radiation treatment. The primary cure rate and the complications have been reported in a previous paper. The five-year survival rate in stage I in cases treated with radiation and surgery was 92%. The survival rate corrected for intercurrent death was 93%. The survival rate in cases treated with radiation only was 71%. The survival rate corrected for intercurrent death was 88%. The total survival rate in stage I was 85% and the survival rate corrected for intercurrent death in Stage 2 was 92%. The total survival rate in the whole case material including all stages was 75.3% and the survival rate corrected for intercurrent death in the total material was 82.8%.