Objective: To study the clinical characteristics, diagnosis and reasonable therapy for metastatic tumors of vulva.
Methods: Seventy eight cases with metastatic tumors of the vulva were retrospectively reviewed. The cervical carcinoma was the most frequent primary site (61 cases), followed by the urethra (5 cases), vagina (4 cases), endometrium (3 cases), breast (2 cases), ovary (1 cases), rectum carcinoma (1 cases) and malignant lymphoma (1 cases).
Results: The median age of this series was 55. 75.6%(59/78) of the patients subsequently developed vulvar metastasis from 15 days to 18 years after the primary tumors diagnosed, the median interval was 2.5 years. 61.5%(48/78) patients combined with primary site recurrence or other place metastasis, primary site recurrence were 35.4%, inguinal lymph node metastasis 45.8%, supraclavicular lymph node metastasis 8.3%, pelvic metastasis 8.3% and hematogenous metastasis 12.5% (liver, lung, skeleton). Radiotherapy was the main therapeutic approch, some cases combined with surgery and/or chemotherapy. The overall 1 year, 3 years and 5 years survival rates after vulvar metastatic occurrence were 65.4%, 29.5% and 16.7% respectively.
Conclusions: The prognosis of the vulva metastatic tumors was poor. Radiotherapy combine with surgery and/or chemotherapy can improve the survival.