MethodsA retrospective study was carried out on 36 patients diagnosed as VPD pathologically from January 1983 to December 2017 at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. The clinical and pathological features, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis and the factors influencing recurrence rate of VPD were analyzed.
Results(1) Totally 94% (34/36) of VPD occurred in postmenopausal women. Pruritus was counted 86% (31/36) of the main complaint. Lesions of vulvar were main symptom which had no specificity, acting as ulcer (67%, 24/36) , erythema (50%, 18/36) , depigmentation (42%, 15/36) , sclerosis (31%, 11/36) , and pigmentation (17%, 6/36) . The lesions invaded labium majus (97%, 35/36) , sometimes labium minus (53%, 19/36) , clitoris (28%, 10/36) , perianal (25%, 9/36) , orificium vaginae (3%, 1/36) , and meatus urinarius (3%, 1/36) . Approximately 19% (7/36) of VPD coexisted with intraepithelial neoplasia or adenocarcinoma of vulvar or other part of body. (2) Diagnosis and treatment: diagnosis was confirmed histologically by biopsy or pathologies after surgery, and immunohistochemical results were helpful for differential diagnosis. Surgery was the mean treatment method, 34 of all the 36 patients (94%, 34/36) underwent surgery for at least once, while 2 patients (6%, 2/36) were performed non-operative treatment. The surgical treatment included excision of focus, wide local excision, simple vulvectomy, and extensive vulvectomy. The non-operative treatment included radiotherapy, chemotherapy, laser, photodynamic therapy, and so on. (3) Prognosis: among 36 VPD patients, 4 were lost to follow-up with a 89% (32/36) follow-up rate. Median follow-up was 35.3 months (range,1 month to 31 years) . During the follow-up period, 2 patients were unable to judge whether they will relapse for the follow-up time did not reach half a year, 8 cases were unsuccessful operation, 20 cases succeeded, the achievement ratio was 71% (20/28) . Nine of twenty cases relapsed, the recurrence rate was 45% (9/20) . The median recurrence time was 14 months after operation. One patient of the 32 followed-up patients died, the mortality rate was 3% (1/32) . (4) The related factors affected the recurrence of VPD: t test was applied to the analysis of patients′ age, rank test was used in the statistics of the time of confirmed diagnosis, the length and thickness of the resection focus. Fisher test was used to calculate whether the focus were limited to the epidermis, type of surgical procedures, distance between the margin and the focus, whether tumor cells infiltrated the margin. The results showed that none of the above terms in the first operation had significant contribution to recurrence (all P>0.05) .
ConclusionsVPD may be a low potential malignancy, which could slowly progress into deep invasive disease. VPD is often associated with intraepithelial neoplasia or primary tumors of the vulva or somewhere else. Operations is the first choice for VPD, but consider for its high recurrence rate after operation, close follow-up should be strongly suggested.
