The spread of cancer of the uterine cervix as seen in giant histological sections

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

RECENTLY most O f our knowl-U edge of the spread of cancer of the cervix was obtained from autopsy studies either of untreated cases or of cases in which irradiation therapy had failed to halt the progression of the disease.During the past several years, however, there has been renewed interest in the surgical treatment of invasive cervical cancer, and, as a result, it has been possible to study the pathology of the disease in earlier stages utili7ing material obtained at Wertheim hysterectomies and at anterior and total pelvic exentera tions.One method of studying this material has been the use of giant hi5tological sections.These section5 make it possible to map quite accurately the extent of the lesion i n all directions.One can also easily study changes in the cervical and vaginal epithelium both near the neoplasm and at some distance from it.Comparison of the histological characteristics of the tumor in different regions is also readily carried out.This report will be Iimited to a discussion of the patterns of spread.Studies of differences in tumor morphology and histochemistry in different parts of the same specimens will be repoited later.Because of the wide variation i n the type and amount of material in thiq pilot study and the small number of cases in earh therapeutic subdivision, however, the qualitative aspects rather than the quantity of findings will be stressed. MATERIALS AND METHODSThis report includes 19 patients with cervical cancer operated upon by one of u s (L.P.).Seventeen oE them are from the Massachusetts