The purpose of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the surgical infectious morbidity in gynecologic cancer. We examined 1,180 gynecologic oncology patients: 608 women had carcinoma of the endometrium, 510 cancer of the cervix, 48 ovarian cancer and 14 vulvar cancer. Thirty-five (6%), 92 (18%), 7 (15%) and 2 (14%) were complicated by infection in carcinoma of the endometrium, cancer of the cervix, ovarian cancer and vulvar cancer, respectively. Our conclusion is that the highest surgical infectious morbidity occurs in patients with cervical cancer and the lowest in patients with carcinoma of the endometrium.