The recovery pattern of patients with vulvar melanoma treated by combined surgery and radiation therapy.
Twenty-five patients with malignant vulvar melanoma have been treated with radical vulvectomy using the warm knife-open wound technique. Following preoperative radiation therapy, dissection of the groin and, in some cases, pelvic lymphadenectomy, were performed as a second procedure. Crude five-year survival was 9/21 (approximately 43%). Patients with tumours of Clark level II--IV have been found to have a good prognosis (7/9), while those with Clark V-tumours have had an extremely poor prognosis (2/10). Prophylactic dissection of the inguinal nodes has not been found to improve the prognosis, and pelvic lymphadenectomy is considered to be inadvisable.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004598:Electrosurgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008545:Melanoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010388:Pelvis; D011379:Prognosis; D014846:Vulvar Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*