Objective To investigate the potential role of preoperative adjuvant chemotherapy on early stage cervical squamous carcinoma with bulky tumor. Methods One hundred and forty-five patients with cervical squamous cancer stagesⅠb-Ⅱa were investigated

among which17 patients with bulky tumors （≥4 cm） were managed by cisplatin-based chemotherapy for 1-2 courses followed by radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy （BC group）. The change of tumor size

pelvic lymph nodes metastasis

cervical wall invasion

the involvement of surgical specimen margin

and the blood loss during operation were assessed after opera-tion and compared with those in 51 patients with bulky tumors （BN group） and 77 patients with small local tumors （S group） who underwent surgery directly. Results （1） The tumor size of 17 patients in BC group were decreased in various degrees after chemotherapy

with 13 pati-ents of clinical effectiveness （76.47%）. And the responsiveness pertained to neither histological differentiation nor size of local tumors. （2） Post-operative histology has showed that patients in BC and BN group have higher incidence of lymph node metastasis and deep cervical infiltration （5/68 and 3/68

respectively） than in S group （1/77 and 1/77

respectively） while with no statistical significance. （3） Blood loss during operation in BC group was less than BN and S group. （4） Seventeen patients

including those underwent surgeries of vaginal prolongation and/or ovarian transposition

appeared disease-free survival within the follow-up time. Conclusions Most of patients with bulky early stage cervical squamous carcinoma are sensitive to cisplatin-based chem-otherapy

which could greatly reduce local tumor size and in turn facilitate the following operation by well controlling blood loss.