Complete remission after neoadjuvant chemotherapy of an advanced vulvar cancer patient: a case report

Invasive vulvar cancer has an incidence of 1-2/100 000 women per year and squamous cell carcinoma accounts for approximately 85-90% of all vulvar cancers. Surgery has long been considered as the standard treatment, followed by chemotherapy in case of lymph node involvement. This approach is not only disfiguring, but also carries with it an operative mortality of up to 10%. Several studies have assessed the feasibility of radio-chemotherapy as definitive therapy and/or a neoadjuvant procedure. Nonetheless, combined radio-chemotherapy is associated with considerable toxicity. This study reports our experience with an unconventional schedule of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (topotecan and cisplatin) without radiotherapy in a patient with locally advanced vulvar cancer (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage IIIA) who experienced complete clinical remission, followed by minimal surgical treatment.