Radiation alone for carcinoma of the vagina: Variation in response related to the location of the primary tumor

Abstract

This study discusses the curability of carcinoma of the vagina based on its anatomic location when predominantly similar treatment techniques and radiation doses were applied to either the proximal or the distal part of the vagina, those with cancer in the proximal half had better survival (81%) than those whose cancer was in the distal half (41%).

Squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina: natural history, treatment modalities and prognostic factors

“…The standard treatment is radiotherapy, which utilizes external beam radiation [EBRT] and/or brachytherapy [BT] techniques [6,22,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. The addition of concurrent cisplatin-based chemotherapy has been recently incorporated in the treatment of this malignancy [62][63][64][65].…”

“…Radiotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina [6,22,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]86]. Therapy plans are individualized and involve combinations of BT and EBRT, which is essential to ensure the delivering of a curative dose to the clinical target volume [CTV], may be intracavitary or interstitial, depending on the extent, thickness, location and morphology of the tumor.…”

“…Tumor location in the upper third of the vagina has been often associated with better prognosis [46,50,53,58] ( Table 3).…”

Patterns of failure in squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina treated with definitive radiotherapy alone: What is the appropriate treatment volume?

“…Radiotherapy is generally regarded as the treatment of choice and we must continue to improve our understanding of treatment techniques and results. The parameters that influence results of radiation treatment include stage [1][2][3], positive nodes [3,4], overall treatment time [2], location (proximal better than distal) [5], histopathology [6], and radiotherapy implant technique [4]. Two external-beam techniques are commonly used: the four-field (box) and the two-field (anterior and posterior) approach.…”

Prognostic Factors in Primary Vaginal Cancer: A Single Institute Experience and Review of Literature

“…Earlier authors like Kucera et al and Ali et al [15,16] have suggested that tumors of upper one-third or upper half of vagina behave better compared with lower-located tumors. Lian et al [5] also observed better DFS for lesions in upper third of vagina.…”