Vulvar cancer is cancer that starts on the skin’s outer layer of the vulva. The disease is truly exotic — approximately 6,400 new cases are registered in the United States annually.

Vulvar Cancer Symptoms and Signs

About 70–80% of cases of vulvar squamous cell carcinoma are associated with two factors: human papillomavirus and chronic inflammation or autoimmune processes.

Human papillomavirus: Vulvar SCC is HPV-associated in approximately 50% of the cases, and HPV is the most common STI in the United States with 43 million new cases annually. Estimated time is that most persons acquire the virus and are exposed to it before the age of twenty-five years, but cancer may occur many years later. Cancer from HPV can be prevented by a safe and effective vaccine. HPV is for anybody in between the ages of 9-45 however; the best age to take vaccine is around 9 albeit depending on the situation. HPV infection causes precancerous and cancerous lesions of the vulva.

• Chronic Inflammatory or Autoimmune Processes: Non-HPV related Vulvar disease including lichen sclerosus can cause precancerous and cancerous lesions of the vulva.

Other risk factors can also increase a person’s chance of developing vulvar cancer, including:

• Age: It is for this reason that approximately 80% of cases of vulvar cancer occurs in women older than fifty years.

• HIV infection: AIDS is a disease produced by human immunodeficiency virus which has an effect of weakening the immune system. This raises the odds of an HPV infection and may likewise impact how well the immune system can detect and kill cancer cells before they metastasize thereby contributing to the spread of cancer.

• Lichen scleroses: This particular condition results to skin in the vulval area to become inflamed and develop features of thin and itching skin. Vulvar cancer develops in only approximately 4 percent of women who have this disease.

Various other cancers in the genitals including cervical cancer can actually raise the likelihood of getting vulvar cancer.

• Smoking: Lifestyle factors that are known to predispose a woman to develop the cancer include smoking. These elevations mean that the risk is even higher for individual with HPV and smoking habits. Simply having any risk factor – or even more than one – does not mean that you will get vulvar cancer, but it does mean vulvar cancer is more likely to happen to you. This is why routine examination and pelvic tests are encouraged. Infect, your doctor can check for signs of vulvar cancer during these exams.

Vulvar Cancer Stages

Cancer staging is how doctors explain whether a cancer is confined to its original location or has spread to other parts of the body. This can assist them in establishing the most proper treatment procedure of the vulvar cancer.

• Stage 1: Cancer has not spread beyond the vulva.

• Stage 2: Cancer has reached the lower vaginal wall or the extramural region including the urethra or anus.

• Stage 3: Cancer has reached the urethral meatus above the level of the vagina, bladder or rectal mucosa, or the adjacent lymph nodes.

• Stage 4: At stage 3b, the disease is located at, and bound to, bone and they also have ulcerating nodes or distant metastasis. I wonder if it may also have gone to distant lymph nodes or any other areas in the body.

Vulvar Cancer Treatment

Here, therefore, are some of the most frequent treatments of vulvar cancer…

• Surgery: This is done with a view of excising the lesion from the vulva. It can range from a simple wide local excision where a small part of the vulva is removed to where a large section is removed depending on where the lesion is and the size. The surgeon also cut out some normal cells around the cancer as close as possible to ensure all the carcinogenic cells had been removed.

Lymph node biopsy: One question that there may want to answer is whether the cancer has metastasized to lymph nodes. Lymph node resection is not always needed in very superficial tumors less than 2 cm but if the tumor is more than 2 cm or the invasion depth is more than 1mm, lymph node examination through sentinel lymph node biopsy or complete lymphadenectomy is mandatory.

• Radiation therapy: Cancer cells or a large tumor is treated or reduced in size by administering focused energy beams to it.

• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy eradicates all cancerous cells with the ability to penetrate other tissues or organs. Chemotherapy may be given alone or in conjunction with radiation or other therapies endorsed by your oncologist.

• Immunotherapy: Drugs stimulate your body’s defense system to locate and kill cancer cells in your body. Vulvar Cancer Prognosis The outlook for women diagnosed with vulvar cancer depends on the stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis.

• 86% if cancer is only in the vulva and the cancer has not reached the lymph nodes or the local tissues.

• 53 % when cancer cells have affected the nearby lymph nodes but not the other parts of the body.

• 19% if the cancer has already affected the neighboring organs or lymph nodes, or metastasize to other areas.

Consult with your doctor if you find any symptoms mentioned above.