A cohort study of vulvar cancer over a period of 10 years and review of literature.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to study the risk factors, management protocols, and the outcome of vulvar cancer cases over a period of 10 years in a tertiary care hospital.

METHODOLOGY: It is a retrospective cohort study. The hospital records of 41 patients with histologically proven vulvar cancer were studied from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Department of Radiotherapy (RT). The presence of risk factors, stage of disease, treatment modalities used, and disease outcomes in terms of survival were studied. The data collected were analyzed and compared with the published literature.

RESULTS: The mean age for the diagnosis of vulvar cancer was 52 years and the peak incidence was seen in the age group of 50-70 years. Incidence was significantly more in multiparous (P = 0.001) and postmenopausal women (P = 0.007). An average of 4.1 cases were seen per year. Nearly, 97.56% of the cases were squamous cell carcinomas. Twenty cases belonged to the early stage of the disease (Stage I and II) whereas 21 cases had advanced disease (Stage III and IV). Nearly, 48.78% of the cases were primarily treated with surgery, 26.83% with RT, 7.3% with chemotherapy, and 17.07% with combined chemoradiation. Seventy-eight percent of the surgically treated cases had a mean survival of 5 years. Mean survival of 1 year was recorded in advanced disease cases. Limitation of the study was poor follow-up after treatment.

CONCLUSION: Incidence of vulvar cancer is significantly high in multiparous and postmenopausal women. Conservative surgical treatment is the best option in the early stage of the disease (Stage I and II) and gives high survival rates whereas advanced disease treated with chemoradiation has a poor survival.