[Survival of patients with vulvar cancer]

Vulvar cancer corresponds to 3 to 5% of all female reproductive tract malignancies. Therefore it is classified as a low frequency disease.

To estimate overall and conditional survival one and two years after diagnosing women with vulvar cancer.

Retrospective cohort study. The patient database ofan oncological hospital was revised and patients with vulvar cancer diagnosed between 1997 and 2006 were selected. The clinical records of these women were reviewed.

Eighty six women aged 32 to 92 years, were identified. Eighty percent had a squamous carcinoma, 46% were in stage III, 48% received incomplete treatment, 40% consulted due to the presence of a vulvar mass and 18% had lesions in labia majora or minora. Overall five years survival at 5 years was 41.8%. There were statistically significant differences in survival depending on the initial stage of cancer (p = 0.02). Five year conditional survival, one and two years after the diagnosis, was 59 and 79%, respectively.

Five years overall survival of these group of women with vulvar cancer was 41.8%. The figures increased to 59 and 79% in patients who had survived one and two years after the diagnosis. The stage of the lesion and the initial survival are survival prognostic factors for vulvar cancer.