title: Systematic irradiation of the vaginal vault in stage I endometrial carcinoma.
abstract: One hundred and twenty patients with clinical pathological stage I carcinoma of the endometrium were treated by total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and either pre- or postoperative intracavitary cesium insertion. External pelvic irradiation (45-50 Gy in 5 weeks) was given postoperatively in 36 cases, mainly for deep myometrial invasion. All the women have been followed for a minimum of 5 years. The overall 5-year survival rate is 86%. According to histological grading, the 5-year survival was 88, 83 and 57% for grades 1 (90 patients), 2 (23 patients) and 3 (7 patients) respectively. A total of 17 local and distant failures were observed: 10 patients had distant metastases, six patients had a pelvic failure and one had both. There was only one isolated vaginal recurrence. Depth of myometrial invasion was not a statistically significant indicator of outcome. Survival rates were comparable in pre- and postoperatively treated patients.
authors.affiliation: Radiotherapy and Radiophysics Unit, Institut Jean-Godinot, Reims, France.
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Froissart
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Panis
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001918:Brachytherapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D014621:Vagina / Q000528:radiation effects*