Taking the treatment of cancer out of the hands of the occasional operator or the occasional radiotherapist remains the major problem. Anyone can obtain an Ernst applicator; anyone with operating privileges capable of holding a scalpel can accomplish a simple hysterectomy for invasive disease or an inadequate radical hysterectomy. At present we must educate our residents, in addition to the men within our specialty and the medical profession in general, to know that carcinoma of the cervix (and other complex malignancies) represent special conditions that should receive therapy in those medical centers specifically interested, staffed, and equipped to provide optimum cancer care.