Primary malignant melanoma of the vagina: long-term remission following radiation therapy.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the characteristics and clinical course of patients with primary vaginal melanoma treated at three large Austrian institutions.


METHODS
The medical records of 14 patients treated at the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Universities of Graz and Vienna and the Salzburg Women's Hospital between 1982 and 1996 were reviewed.


RESULTS
The median age at diagnosis was 73 years. Presenting symptoms included vaginal bleeding in all patients. Three of seven patients (43%) with tumors < or = 3 cm survived longer than 5 years compared to none of seven patients with a tumor size > 3 cm. Three of nine patients (33%) who received radiotherapy either in addition to surgical excision or as primary treatment, survived for 5 years. Other potential prognostic factors such as age, location, FIGO stage, depth of invasion, Chung level, histology, cell type, mitotic count, vessel involvement, ulceration, p53 accumulation, type of surgery, type of radiotherapy, or chemotherapy did not seem to correlate with the patients' outcome. The median overall survival was 10 months (range 1-153). The 5-year disease-free and overall survival rates were 14 and 21%, respectively. All three long-term survivors recurred locally.


CONCLUSIONS
All three patients who had long-term survival had lesions < or = 3 cm and received either primary radiotherapy (n = 2) or adjuvant radiotherapy after complete excision of the primary lesion (n = 1). In view of the poor overall survival rates, regardless of treatment, radiotherapy may be a limited valuable alternative or adjunct to surgery in patients with primary malignant melanoma of the vagina < or = 3 cm in diameter.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Graz, Austria.
E
E
Petru
F
F
Nagele
K
K
Czerwenka
A H
AH
Graf
S
S
Lax
M
M
Bauer
H
H
Pehamberger
N
N
Vavra
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012074:Remission Induction; D013997:Time Factors; D014625:Vaginal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*