CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 20, 94-101, Copyright
© 1970 by American Cancer Society
Management of Invasive Cervical Cancer Following Inadvertent Simple Hysterectomy
Thomas H. Green Jr. M.D.1 and
Willard J. Morse Jr. M.D.2
1 Chief of Gynecology, Pondville State Cancer Hospital, Walpole, Massachusetts; Associate Clinical Professor of Gynecology, Harvard Medical School; and Associate Visiting Surgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
2 Assistant Attending Gynecologist, Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, New London, Connecticut, and Consultant in Gynecology, U.S.C.G.A. Hospital, New London.
Eighty-four women in whom simple hysterectomy had been performed accidentally in the presence of invasive cervical cancer, unsuspected in most instances, were referred to our hospital during the twenty-year period, 1940-1960. Early reoperation with radical surgical removal of the residual tumor-bearing area by means of the Wertheim, Schauta, or pelvic-exenteration procedure appears to offer the greatest chance of salvage in this unfortunate situation. In this series, 21 patients underwent radical reoperation with a view to cure, and 14 (67 percent) survived 5 or more years, Radiation therapy has proved less successful in our hands, quite probably because of the technical obstacles to effective local application of radium which absence of the uterus poses. Thus, although 30 patients were given a full course of radiotherapy with a view to cure, only 9 (30 percent) survived 5 or more years.
