One hundred seventy-seven patients with squamous cell carcinoma that invaded the cervical stroma to a depth of 5.0 mm or less were the subjects of this investigation. Fifty-one patients were treated primarily by vaginal hysterectomy, 42 by total abdominal hysterectomy, and 84 by radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy. In 52 patients with lesions that invaded the cervical stroma to a depth of 3.0 mm or less, 984 lymph nodes were examined and none contained metastatic tumor. Conversely, lymph node metastases were present in three of 32 patients with lesions that had stromal invasion of 3.1 to 5.0 mm. After therapy, all patients were followed up from 2 to 14 years, and none was lost to follow-up. Among 145 patients with lesions that invaded the stroma to a depth of 3.0 mm or less, only two developed recurrences, both of which were intraepithelial. Among the 32 cases of carcinoma that invaded the stroma 3.1 to 5.0 mm, there were three invasive recurrences, and two deaths.