Between January 1983 and December 1987, 77 patients with cervical and endometrial carcinoma (40 and 37 cases, respectively) were studied with a diagnostic protocol which included lymphangiography and abdomino-pelvic CT. The only administered treatment was radiation since all patients were considered inoperable or had non-resectable disease. Median age was 55 years (range 29-77). Median follow-up was 44 months-minimum 24, maximum 72 months. Subdiaphragmatic nodes were considered as pathologic even when just one of the two techniques demonstrated their involvement. Radiotherapy doses and volumes varied according to these findings (45 Gy to pelvis as a precautional dose; 6-8 Gy booster dose in N1 cases; 45 Gy to the periaortic area in N4 cases). The two diagnostic techniques agreed as to the presence/absence of pathologic nodes in 50 (64.9%) and 12 (15.6%) patients, respectively. There was disagreement between CT and lymphangiographic findings in 12 patients (15.6%) as regards the pelvic area and in 8 patients as regards the periaortic area (10.4%; 5 of the 8 also figured in the pelvic group). Actuarial 5-year disease-free survival for both groups, summing up stages I, II and III, goes as follows: cervical carcinoma patients: 47% (N0 cases 56%, N1-N4 33%, p = 0.07) and endometrial carcinoma group: 74.5% (no difference was found between N0 and N1 cases). Higher diagnostic accuracy seems to be obtained when CT is combined with lymphangiography than when either of them is performed alone. Therefore, the combined use of the two techniques could have a precise diagnostic role.