Abstract
Vulval cancers are rare, but after primary treatment, known to recur with a high frequency (30%). Clinico-pathological predictors of recurrence have been established to a great extent. However, there is paucity of literature on predictors of early versus late recurrence. We sought to identify such predictors through a retrospective study of vulval cancer recurrences in a single cancer centre over 11 years. Age of women, depth of invasion/site of primary tumour and presence of background VIN/lichen sclerosus do not appear to affect timing of recurrence. However, vulval cancers that recur after 2 years of primary tumour recognition are more likely to be well-differentiated tumours, have undergone radical surgery and have had a closest disease-free margin >1 cm. Late recurrences are entirely local rather than distant metastases and this translates into a better survival as shown in our study (40 months median survival in the early group versus 112 in the late recurrence group).
Declaration of interest
The authors have no conflict of interest.