The prognostic significance of ureteral obstruction in patients with recurrent carcinoma of the cervix uteri.

The findings of the present investigation confirm that no patient with total ureteral obstruction by recurrent cancer survived longer than two years after pelvic exenteration. In contrast,ver 50 per cent of those patients with normal intravenous pyelograms are alive with no evidence of disease two to ten years after radical operation. There is no question that all patients with recurrent carcinoma of the cervix uteri who are satisfactory candidates for radical operative procedures should undergo exploration to determine the extent of the disease and the possibility to curative resection. However, when total ureteral obstruction is found to be caused by a tumor, patient survival is so limited as to make pelvic exenteration impractical.