Radiotherapy for vulvar carcinoma with positive inguinal nodes: Adjunctive treatment

Between 1981 and 1988, 58 patients with vulvar carcinoma underwent radical vulvectomy and unilateral inguinal lymphadenectomy. Sixteen patients with inguinal node metastases received complementary radiotherapy as an alternative to pelvic node dissection. They were treated with Co-60 therapy for bilateral inguinal and pelvic lymph nodes. The overall five-year actuarial survival rate in patients without node involvement was 84%; in patients with positive inguinal nodes treated with the combined radiosurgical approach, it was 64%. Patients with 1 node involved had a 74% rate of estimated survival, and those with 2 or more metastatic nodes, considered to be at high risk, had an estimated survival rate of 49%. Only mild to moderate side effects related to the radiation therapy were observed, and in no case was it necessary to interrupt the treatment. In terms of survival, the results obtained in the group of patients with postoperative radiotherapy were better than those normally expected after pelvic lymphadenectomy, and as suggested in recent literature, point to the promising role of irradiation as adjuvant management for vulvar cancer with node involvement.