Abstract

Richard Ngendabanyikwa*, Mamadou A.B., Benali Sad, Guelzim Khalid, Elhassani, Babahabib M. and Kouach J.

ABSTRACT

Cancer of the vulva is a rare but serious cancer that affects preferentially the elderly woman but sometimes also the young woman and even the child. Surgical treatment is the cornerstone of its management. It is based on vulvectomies for which the obtaining of healthy margins with sufficient exeresis is the key point of their success. Inguinal lymphadenectomies are part of the treatment of invasive carcinomas. The morbidity of this inguino-vulvar surgery is important and leaves sequelae that are sometimes long-lasting and disabling. The combined use of adapted radical vulvar surgery and increasingly targeted lymph node surgery, the easy use of cover flaps, and the improvement of perioperative management of these patients, contribute, to varying degrees, to the reduction in frequency and severity of these complications, without losing therapeutic efficacy. Moreover, the judicious use of radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy contributes to the therapeutic success of the most advanced forms. Better screening of early forms by listening to patients and examining their vulva with biopsy at the slightest doubt, as well as regular monitoring of treated forms, will reduce the incidence of severe forms still too often encountered today. It is also likely that HPV vaccination will reduce the incidence of virus-induced forms.