Radiation Therapy in the Management of Children With Gynecologic Cancers*

Summary Treatment of most gynecologic malignancies in the young is primarily surgical even in the case of radiosensitive tumors, because radiotherapy of the female pelvis in children presents many problems. The younger the child at the time of treatment, the more prominent some of these problems become. Though “prophylactic” postoperative radiation is not advocated, radiotherapy can play an important role in controlling residual, recurrent or metastatic disease, notably in the case of the dysgerminoma and the granulosa‐theca‐cell tumor. The combination of surgery, irradiation, and chemotherapy is not only palliative in patients who have disseminated tumors of other histologic types, but it also may be curative. Meticulous accuracy is essential to minimize the untoward effects of radiotherapy.