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Inflammatory breast carcinoma has to be defined by accurate clinical and pathological criteria. The prognosis is very poor and improvements made by chemotherapy are limited to the increase in the disease-free period and overall survival for a few months.

No results from therapeutic trials describing the best therapeutic procedure for cervical carcinoma in stages I and IIa are available. Analysis of a series of 242 cases of cervical carcinoma in stages I and IIa, from 1975 to 1980, treated with radical surgery and radiation therapy, yields a therapeutic approach that envisions the most reliable evaluation of subclinical extension, cure of cervical tumor and prevention of pelvic or extra-pelvic metastases with a minimum of post-radiation problems. The choice of combination surgery and radiation therapy is primarily determined by staging and the volume of the central pelvic tumor. For stages I and IIb (upper third of vagina involved) with central pelvic tumor less than 4 cm in diameter, the usual procedure is recommended i.e. radium application, total hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy followed by external irradiation of pelvic lymphatics in cases with lymphadenopathy. For stages IIb (obvious parametrial involvement) and for stages I or II with central pelvic tumor between 4 and 6 cm in diameter: total dose external and internal pelvic radiation therapy followed by total hysterectomy without pelvic lymphadenectomy but with exploration of obturator, hypogastric, external iliac, common iliac, and aortic nodes. For the rare supravaginal central pelvic tumors greater than 6 cm in diameter, the risk of clinical evaluative error and incomplete sterility by irradiation alone, warrants first an explorative laparotomy using Wertheim's procedure, then pelvic lymphadenectomy and exploration of pelvic and aortic lymph nodes.

The authors performed pelvic and lumbo-aortic tomodensitometry (TDM) in 67 patients with invasive carcinoma of the cervix. Localisation of the cervix is aided by the insertion of a vaginal marker and by opacification of the bladder and rectum. The density and appearance of tumour tissue are identical to those of normal uterine muscle. Under such conditions, TDM is of no use in seeing partial or total involvement of the cervix without any increase in cervical size. TDM gives a clear picture of hypertrophic neoplastic cervices and may be used to obtain exact measurements. TDM offers valuable information in cases of spread to the parametrium, lymphadenopathy or visceral metastases. During radium therapy, TDM shows the relationships between the radioactive sources and the centri-pelvic tumour. It facilitates the drawing of isodose curves. TDM is not a method suitable for the early diagnosis of carcinoma of the cervix. It adds very useful complementary information to clinical examination and classical investigation.