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Vulvar cancer
Author(s) -
M URRUTIA RUIZ
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1016/0020-7292(94)90032-9
Subject(s) - medicine , citation , family medicine , gynecology , library science , computer science
Vulvar cancer is an uncommon tumor, accounting for 5% of all gynecologic malignancies. Ninety percent of vulvar tumors are squamous cell carcinomas, but less common vulvar malignancies include melanomas, Bartholin gland carcinomas, and a variety of sarcomas. During the past decade, prognostic factors for vulvar cancer have been more clearly defined, and treatment has been individualized in many centers. The tendency has been toward conservative surgical approaches and rational utilization of preoperative or postoperative radiation in selected patients. The impetus to perform more conservative surgery has been the realization that radical vulvectomy is associated with marked psychosexual sequelae. When compared with healthy adult women, women who have undergone a vulvectomy report lower levels of sexual arousal (reduced to the eighth percentile) and poor body image (reduced to the fourth percentile) (1).