One hundred thirty-nine patients with invasive carcinoma of the cervix underwent laparotomy at the University of South Florida between February 1980 and November 1983. One hundred nineteen had laparotomy prior to treatment and 20 after treatment for recurrence or some other reason. One hundred twenty patients had negative peritoneal cytology, 8 had equivocal cytology and 11 had positive cytology. Positive peritoneal cytology was more common in higher-stage disease and was statistically significantly more common in patients with positive retroperitoneal lymph nodes (P less than 0.05). The rate of peritoneal cytologic positivity in patients with squamous carcinoma was the same as that for adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma. Positive peritoneal cytology was associated with a very poor prognosis but was associated with other poor prognostic factors in all but 1 patient. Equivocal cytology did not seem to be of any particular significance. No patient in this series had an alteration in treatment planning based on peritoneal cytology. The utility and future of peritoneal cytology in invasive carcinoma of the cervix are discussed.