W&I study shows new treatment for vulva cancer

The team includes Drs. Richard G. Moore, Dario Roque, Carolyn McCourt, Ashley Stuckey, Paul A. DiSIlvestro, James Sung, Margaret Steinhoff, Cornelius Granai III and Katina Robison. The gynecologic oncology surgeons used radioactive dye and blue dye to identify and remove just the sentinel nodes, which is the first place cancer will go. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY
The team includes Drs. Richard G. Moore, Dario Roque, Carolyn McCourt, Ashley Stuckey, Paul A. DiSIlvestro, James Sung, Margaret Steinhoff, Cornelius Granai III and Katina Robison. The gynecologic oncology surgeons used radioactive dye and blue dye to identify and remove just the sentinel nodes, which is the first place cancer will go. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – A team of researchers from Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island’s Program in Women’s Oncology and Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine recently presented the results of a study evaluating the use of sentinel lymph node dissection in women with vulvar malignancies and follow-ups with the patients for complications and recurrence.

The team includes Drs. Richard G. Moore, Dario Roque, Carolyn McCourt, Ashley Stuckey, Paul A. DiSilvestro, James Sung, Margaret Steinhoff, Cornelius Granai III, and Katina Robison. The gynecologic oncology surgeons used radioactive dye and blue dye to identify and remove just the sentinel nodes, which is the first place cancer will go.

“The object of this study was to examine the sentinel lymph node alone in women with squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva and evaluate their recurrence in the groin and any complication rates,” Moore said in a statement. “We discovered that removing just the sentinel node had decreased complication while maintaining a low rate of further occurrence of malignancy.

The study, the largest prospective trial on sentinel lymph node dissection among women with vulvar cancer in the United States, included 73 women with 69 undergoing sentinel node dissection. Fifty seven of those women were managed conservatively. Three experienced groin recurrences, for a recurrence rate of 5.2 percent.

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Women whose sentinel node tested negative for metastasis were followed clinically without further treatment. Women with metastasis to the sentinel lymph node underwent full groin node dissection and were then followed by standard treatment protocols.

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