Statistics and outlook for vulval cancer

Following on this page, is information about the survival rates of vulval cancer. We have included it because many people have asked us for this. But not everyone who is diagnosed with a cancer wishes to read this type of information. If you are not sure whether you want to know at the moment or not, then perhaps you might like to skip this page for now. You can always come back to it.

There is a section explaining more about the different types of cancer statistics in the section on cancer statistics. Unless you are very familiar with medical statistics, you may find it helpful to read this before you read the information below.

Remember that statistics are averages based on large numbers of patients. They cannot predict exactly what will happen to you. No two people are exactly alike, and response to treatment also varies from one person to another.

Please note: There are no national statistics available for different stages of cancer or treatments that people may have received. The statistics we present here are pulled together from a variety of different sources, including the opinions and experience of the experts that check each section of our patient information. We provide statistics because people ask us for them. But they are only intended as a general guide and cannot be regarded as any more than that.

You should feel free to ask your doctor about your prognosis, but not even your doctor can tell you for sure what will happen. You may hear your doctor use the term 5 year survival. It does not mean you will only live 5 years. It relates to the number of people in research who were still alive 5 years after diagnosis. Doctors follow what happens to people for 5 years after treatment in any research study. This is because there is only a small chance that vulval cancer will come back more than 5 years after treatment. They do not like to say these people are cured because there is that small chance. So the term 5 year survival is used instead.

As with many other types of cancer, the outcome depends on how advanced your cancer is when it is diagnosed. In other words, the stage of your cancer. Overall, of all those women diagnosed in the UK with vulval cancer, 58 out of every 100 (58%) will be alive 5 years later. Please note, these are relative survival figures. This means that statisticians have adjusted them for the general risk of people of this age group dying from something other than cancer. In other words, the survival rate is relative to the rest of the population.

About 9 out of 10 people diagnosed with vulval cancer will have squamous cell vulval cancer. Some doctors call this epidermoid vulval cancer, but it means the same thing.

Cancer of the vulva has a very high cure rate if it is found in the early stages. The size of the tumour and whether the lymph nodes contain cancer cells are important factors. But it is quite difficult to find reliable survival figures for different stages of many types of cancer. The figures below come from a large, international organisation of specialists in women's cancer called FIGO (International Federation of Gynaecology Oncologists). They collected information on over 1,600 women with vulval cancer across the world. So, remember that these figures are international and not just UK.

Of those women with stage 1 vulval cancer, about 79 out of every 100 (79%) will live for at least 5 years. For women with stage 2 cancer, about 59 out of every 100 (59%) will live for at least 5 years. For stage 3 vulval cancer, about 43 out of every 100 women will live for at least 5 years. Cancer that has spread to another part of the body is always much harder to treat. For stage 4 cancer of the vulva, only about 13 women out of every 100 will live for at least 5 years.

It is important to bear in mind that these statistics relate to women who were diagnosed and treated more than 5 years ago. Survival rates may be better for women who are recently diagnosed, because they will benefit from any recent improvements in treatment.

Melanoma of the vulva is very rare so it is harder to find reliable statistics. A Swedish study of 200 patients treated between 1960 and 1984 says that overall, about 47 out of every 100 women (47%) will live for at least 5 years. A more recent American study looked at 3 groups: localised melanoma, melanona that had spread to lymph nodes (regional disease) and melanoma that had spread to other body organs (distant disease). They found that about 76 out of every 100 women (76%) with localised vulval melanoma lived for at least 5 years. About 39 out of every 100 women (39%) with regional disease lived for at least 5 years. About 22 out of every 100 women (22%) with advanced vulval melanoma that had spread to another part of the body lived for at least 5 years.

There are 2 other factors that can affect your prognosis, apart from the stage of your cancer

• The grade
• How well you are overall

The cells are graded according to how like or unlike normal cells they are when looked at under a microscope. There are 3 groups (called grades 1 to 3), according to the size and appearance of the nucleus (control centre) of the cancer cells. Grade 1 cancer cells are the most similar to normal cells; grade 3 are the most unlike normal cells. Generally speaking, the higher the grade, the more quickly the cancer is likely to grow. There is a little more about grade on the previous page of this section (the stages page).

Doctors also have a way of grading how well you are. They call this your performance status. You may see this written PS. A score of 0 means you are completely able to look after yourself. A score of 1 means you can do most things for yourself, but need some help. The scores go up to 4, depending on how much help you need. This is relevant to survival because overall, the fitter people are, the better able they are to withstand their cancer and treatment.

No statistics can tell you what will happen to you. Your cancer is unique. The same type of cancer can grow at different rates in different people for example. The statistics are not detailed enough to tell you about the different treatments people may have had. And how that treatment may have affected their prognosis. There are many individual factors that will determine your treatment and prognosis.

Research evidence shows that taking part in clinical trials may improve outlook. No one is completely sure why this is. It is probably partly to do with your doctors and nurses monitoring you more closely if you are in a trial. For example, you may have more scans and blood tests. There is more information in the trials and research section of CancerHelp UK. To search our clinical trials database for vulval cancer trials, choose 'vulval' from the dropdown menu of cancer types.