Abstract

In the 10-year period ending December 1991, 14 patients with primary melanoma of the vulva and nine with primary melanoma of the vagina were diagnosed and treated. Of the patients with vulval melanoma, three were treated surgically with wide local excision of the tumor alone, six had wide local excision with inguinal node dissection, and five had radical vulvectomy with inguinal node dissection. Four of the patients with vaginal melanoma had wide local excision; two had wide local excision with inguinal and or pelvic node dissection; and three had surgery that was more radical than this. Two years after diagnosis, all of the patients whose tumors were 2 mm thick or more had died, or were alive but had distant metastases. This was independent of the apparent surgical success of local excision of the disease. We consider that conservative procedures in the management of invasive melanoma of the lower female genital tract should be the rule, and that radical procedures should be reserved for palliation rather than cure.