THE ETIOLOGY OF TREATMENT FAILURES IN EARLY STAGE CARCINOMA OF THE CERVIX

Abstract

In a small series such as this, we have obviously not been able to find an absolute or compelling reason for some treatment failures of localized cervical carcinoma with irradiation. In a strictly qualitative sense, we feel that there is at least indication that there were many more unfavorable factors operating in the failures than in the successfully treated cases. The study indicates that much more work might be done in analyzing the many variables involved in the radiotherapeutic approach to this disease from the clinical point of view before one attributes failures to some easily accepted escape phrase such as "radioresistance."