From April 1977 through April 1985, 218 stage I endometrial carcinomas were treated with radiosurgery or radiotherapy alone. Postoperative irradiation was external (60Co) in 131 and curietherapy in 27 patients. Twenty patients underwent preoperative curietherapy and 40 patients radiotherapy alone. Median follow-up was 5.6 years (range 3-11). The overall 5-year actuarial survival (Kaplan-Meier method) was 86.1% +/- 2.5. The 5-year D.F. actuarial survival was 95% +/- 4.9, 93.1% +/- 4.7, 88.4% +/- 2.9, respectively, for preoperative radiotherapy, postoperative curietherapy and postoperative external irradiation groups. The 5-year actuarial survival was 69.8% +/- 7.7 in the radiotherapy alone group. There was difference in survival among patients treated with radiotherapy alone as compared to those radiosurgically treated (P less than 0.001). Local and general recurrence rate was 8.2%; vaginal recurrences 2/218 (0.9%); pelvic recurrences 7/218 (3.3%); distant metastases 9/218 (4.1%). Overall side effects were observed in 20/218 patients (9.1%): grade I and II in 8.6% of cases, grade III in 0.9% of cases. The authors conclude that good results can be achieved with adjuvant radiotherapy both in high risk cases and in low risk cases, with minimal side effects.