Paraaortic lymph node radiotherapy in cancer of the uterine corpus.

From 1973 through 1982, 48 women received 4500 to 5075 rads to the paraaortic lymph nodes as part of their primary management for cancer of the uterine corpus. One patient developed severe enteric morbidity. Five-year survival rates were 52% in the total group, 57% in clinically staged patients, and 47% in surgically staged patients. Patients with surgically confirmed pelvic lymphatic spread had a five-year survival rate of 67%. Patients with surgically confirmed paraaortic spread alone or pelvic and paraaortic spread had five-year survival rates of 47 and 43%, respectively. Eighty-eight percent of recurrences were outside of the radiation portals. In contradistinction to much of the last decade's literature, radiation therapy has salvaged a substantial fraction of patients with nodal metastases, and morbidity rates have been acceptable.