Forty years' evolution in the management of patients with endometrial carcinoma.
Of 218 patients with early endometrial cancer treated with planned pre-hysterectomy intracavitary irradiation, 105 were operated 6 weeks after the completion of radiation therapy in the traditional fashion. A group of 113 patients, similar as to stage and differentiation of their disease, were operated on within 48 hours of the removal of the radiation sources. More than 90% of both groups were cured, indicating the lack of benefit from the traditional delayed hysterectomy sequence.