vaginal cancer

vaginal cancer,

a malignancy of the vagina occurring rarely as a primary neoplasm and more often as a secondary lesion or extension of vulvar, cervical, endometrial, or ovarian cancer. Clear cell adenocarcinoma occurs in young women ages 14 to 30 exposed in utero to diethylstilbestrol, given to their mothers to prevent abortion, but most primary vaginal cancers arise in Caucasian women over 50 years of age. A predisposing factor is cervical carcinoma. Vaginal leukoplakia, erythematosus, erosion, or granulation of the mucosa may prove to be carcinoma in situ. Symptoms of invasive lesions are postmenopausal bleeding, purulent discharge, pain, and dysuria. Diagnostic measures include cervical, endocervical, and vaginal Papanicolaou smears, colposcopy, biopsy, and Schiller's iodine test in which malignant cells do not stain dark brown. Ninety percent of vaginal cancers are squamous cell carcinomas; others are clear cell or undifferentiated adenocarcinomas, malignant melanomas, and sarcomas. Depending on the patient's age and condition and the site and extent of the lesion, treatment may be by irradiation or vaginectomy and radical hysterectomy with lymph node dissection. Cryosurgery, topical 5-fluorouracil, and dinitrochlorobenzene may be used, but chemotherapy is not usually effective.

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vaginal cancer

Gynecology Any malignancy of the vagina, including nonepithelial lesions–eg, Sarcoma botryoides; vaginal adenoCA is linked to maternal use of DES during pregnancy. See Diethylstilbestrol.