Vaginal Cancer Treatment

At MD Anderson, a team of renowned physicians customizes your care to be sure you receive the most advanced treatments for vaginal cancer. Because we go beyond treating the disease, we always keep your quality of life in mind. For this reason, we focus on therapies that target cancer with leading-edge methods while minimizing side effects.

MD Anderson treats more women each year with vaginal cancer than most oncologists in the nation. This gives us a level of expertise that is rare and translates to better outcomes in many cases of vaginal cancer.

Like all surgeries, vaginal cancer surgery is most successful when performed by a specialist with as much experience as possible in the procedure. MD Anderson surgeons are among the most skilled and recognized in the world. They perform many surgeries for vaginal cancer each year, using the newest, most-advanced techniques. Special areas of focus include:

• Surgical methods that allow some women to keep the ability to have children
• Reconstructive surgery after treatment

We are constantly researching newer, safer, more-advanced vaginal cancer treatments. This translates to a number of clinical trials for vaginal cancer.

Our vaginal cancer treatments

If you are diagnosed with vaginal cancer, your doctor will discuss the best options to treat it. This depends on several factors, including:

• Type and stage of the cancer
• Your age and general health
• If you want to have children

Your vaginal cancer treatment will be customized to your needs. Sometimes two or more treatments are combined. Chemotherapy and/or radiation may be used together.

One or more of the following therapies may be recommended to treat vaginal cancer or help relieve symptoms.

Topical therapy

A drug is applied directly onto the cancer. Topical therapy is not used to treat invasive vaginal cancer.

Surgery

Surgery may be used for:

• Early-stage vaginal cancer
• Sarcomas
• Melanomas

Your team of doctors will decide which method is best for you. Common surgeries for vaginal cancer include:

Laser surgery: This procedure may be used to treat precancerous changes, but it is not used for invasive vaginal cancer. Abnormal cells are burned off with a laser beam.

Excision: The cancer and some healthy tissue on each side of it are surgically removed.

Vaginectomy: All or part of the vagina is removed.

Vaginal reconstruction: After surgery to remove the vaginal cancer, some women are able to have surgery to make a new vagina from tissue or skin from elsewhere on the body. This allows you to have intercourse.

Lymphadenectomy: If cancer has spread to lymph nodes in the groin or pelvis areas, or the surgeon wants to examine them to see if cancer has spread, it may be necessary to remove the glands surgically. This also is called a lymph node dissection. Lymphedema, which is caused by decreased fluid drainage, may be a side effect of this surgery. Learn more about lymphedema.

Pelvic exenteration: Although this surgery is used rarely for vaginal cancer, it may be needed if the cancer has come back or it cannot be treated with radiation. In addition to the organs and tissues removed in a radical hysterectomy, the bladder, cervix, rectum and part of the colon are removed.

• If the bladder is removed, a piece of intestine may be used to make a new bladder. Then urine may be drained through a catheter (tube) into a urostomy, which is a small opening on the abdomen, or into a small plastic bag worn on the outside of the body.
• If the rectum and part of the colon are removed, you may have a colostomy, which is an opening on the abdomen that allows solid waste (stool) to pass into a small bag worn on the outside of the body. Sometimes the colon may be reconnected so that a colostomy is not needed.

To learn more about the surgery, watch Total Pelvic Exenteration: What You Need to Know.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, control their growth or relieve disease-related symptoms. Chemotherapy may involve a single drug or a combination of two or more drugs, depending on the type of cancer and how fast it is growing.

Learn more about chemotherapy.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses powerful, focused beams of energy to kill cancer cells. There are several different radiation therapy techniques. Doctors can use these to accurately target a tumor while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. 

MD Anderson provides the most advanced radiation treatments, including:

• External beam radiation: External beam treatment is delivered with a linear accelerator that can be used to precisely target radiation to the vaginal tumor while reducing the dose to the bladder, rectum and bowels. External radiation is typically given over five weeks, with one daily treatment on Monday through Friday. Treatment takes about 15 minutes, and you don’t feel the treatment being delivered. Over the five weeks of treatment, the vaginal tumors shrink along with any symptoms from the tumor, including bleeding or pain.
• Brachytherapy: After external beam treatment, brachytherapy is often delivered with the goal of eliminating vaginal cancers. Tiny radioactive seeds or rods are placed in the body close to the tumor. Image guidance with MRI or CT after or during the procedure can be used to guide the placement of the applicators. Precise applicator positioning has been shown to improve the likelihood of treatment cure and reduce the risk of side effects from the treatment.  Learn more about brachytherapy.

Learn more about radiation therapy.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type of immunotherapy. They stop the immune system from turning off before cancer is completely eliminated. Patients may receive a single immunotherapy drug or multiple drugs in combination.

Learn more about immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy drugs are designed to stop or slow the growth or spread of cancer. This happens on a cellular level. Cancer cells need specific molecules (often in the form of proteins) to survive, multiply and spread. These molecules are usually made by the genes that cause cancer, as well as the cells themselves. Targeted therapies are designed to interfere with, or target, these molecules or the cancer-causing genes that create them. 

Learn more about targeted therapy.

Our vaginal cancer clinical trials

Because of its status as one of the world’s premier cancer centers, MD Anderson participates in clinical trials (research studies) of new therapies for vaginal cancer. Sometimes, they are your best option for treatment. Other times, they help researchers learn how to treat cancer and improve the future of cancer treatment.

Learn more about clinical trials at MD Anderson.