High-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation in the treatment of carcinoma of the uterine cervix: early experience with 84 patients.

Eighty-four patients with previously untreated invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix were treated by high-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation using a remotely controlled afterloading system (Ralstron) with or without external irradiation at the National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, between 1977 and 1981. Survival rates and local control rates were comparable to those for 372 patients treated by low-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation with or without external irradiation from 1972 to 1981 at the hospital. The incidence of major complications was 5.1 and 2.4% for the patients treated by low-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation and by high-dose-rate irradiation, respectively. The results are comparable to those reported by other institutions. We have abandoned the conventional low-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation with the impression that the high-dose-rate remotely controlled afterloading system is a good alternative to the conventional one.