Objective: The purpose of the present study was to identify prognostic factors in surgically treated patients with stage IB-IIB cervical cancers, who also presented with positive pelvic nodes. Method: The patient population consisted of 68 individuals presenting with stage IB-IIB cervical cancers and with histologically proven pelvic lymph nodes. Result: We found no association between the type of adjuvant therapy and patient outcome. Multivariate analysis revealed that non-squamous histology was an independent prognostic factor for disease-free and overall survival rates. In squamous cell carcinomas, the bilateral nature of the positive nodes was found to be a significant factor for disease-free survival rates. In non-squamous cell carcinomas, positive nodes of more than 2cm in size were found to be a significant factor for disease-free survival rates. Conclusion: Non-squamous histology was an independent prognostic factor and chemo radiotherapy did not improve the survival outcomes of the patients in this study population. (c) 2006 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.