Objective To evaluate the feasibility of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with vulvar cancer. Methods Twenty-one patients with vulvar squamous cancer undergoing radical surgery admitted in Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences from Oct.2004 to Apr.2008, were enrolled in the study. SLNB procedure was performed with blue dye alone in the first eleven patients, while the later ten patients, a combination procedure with radioactive tracer and blue dye was used to detect sentinel lymph node (SLN). All resected nodes were submitted to the pathological examination, which was considered as the gold standard to determine the efficacy of SLNB. The complications related to SLNB were also observed during the study. Results The sentinel node was identified in 20 patients (95%), included 8 cases with unilateral SLNs and 12 cases with bilateral SLN. A total of 83 SLN were identified with a mean number of 4.2 per patient (range, 1-9) or 2.6 per groin (range, 1-6). Difference between the mean number of SLN (4.4 per patient, 2.5 per groin) identified by blue dye or by combined procedure (3.9 per patient, 2.7 per groin) was not statistically significant (t=0.459,P=0.652;t=-0.421,P=0.717). Twenty patients were detected to positively superficial inguinal SLN and one of them also positively bilateral deep femoral SLN, 8 (10 groins) of them were detected positively nodal metastases. Among of eight patients, 7 (9 groins)of them were detected more than one SLN involved, while 1 of them were detected false-negative node involved. The false negative rate of was 10%(1/10), negative predictive value was 96%(22/23). No complications were attributed to the study. Conclusions SLNB procedure in vulvar cancer is feasible and safe. SLN identification appears to be highly accurate for detecting metastases in the ipsilateral inguinal lymphatic basins.

Objective To evaluate the etiology, clinicopathological characteristics, treatment and prognosis of VIN Ⅲ. Methods Thirty-five patients with VIN Ⅲ admitted in Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences between 1993 and 2008 were analyzed retrospectively. Results All 35 patients attended to hospital with the symptoms of pruritus vulvae and lumps. Among of them, there were 28 (80%) cases whose lesions presented as multiple plaques, while 7 (20%) eases lesion were monofocal.Fifteen out of 35 eases had coexistent with human papillomavirus (HPV) related lesions, and there were the evidence of HPV in 22 patients whose pathologic sections revealed koilocytes. 34 cases (97%) except one received different types of surgical resections, including wide local resection (14/34), simple vulvectomy (16/34) and simple vulvectomy plus perianal skin resection (4/34), while there two cases shown positive cut-edges and one of them received radiotherapy postoperatively. Four out of the 34 cases recurred locally in 2, 4, 6 and 22 months and received surgical treatment again or laser therapy, respectively. The median follow-up period was 66 months ( range 1-166), and none of them were died of the disease itself except one case died of the concurrent cervical cancer. Among 26 cases received the investigation of the quality of life,there were nine cases (35%) suffered from sexual dysfunction after the operation, and one of them received vulvoplasty. Conclusions VIN Ⅲ has good prognosis. The development of VIN Ⅲ may be related to the infection of HPV, because most of them concurrent with HPV diseases. Its primary treatment is surgical resection, while affecting on the quality of life.

Objective To assess the nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy (NSRH) technique and its impact on postoperative voiding function. Methods Forty-fonr patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics(FIGO) stage Ⅰ b1 - Ⅱ a cervical cancer were enrolled and randomized into NSRH group ( study group, n = 22) and conventional radical hysterectomy (CRH) group ( control group, n = 22). The pelvic autonomic nerve pathway (including hypogastric nerve, pelvic splanchnic nerve, inferior hypogastric plexus and bladder branch) was completely preserved in the NSRH group. Related parameters were compared between the two groups. Results The estimated blood loss in NSRH group and CRH group were (550±241) ml and (475±284) ml, respectively, with no significant difference (P >0. 05). The mean operation time in NSRH group and CRH group were (329±43) min and (272±56) min, respectively, with a significant difference (P < 0. 01). More patients in NSRH group had post-void residual urine volume (PVR) < 100 ml than that in CRH group on day 8 after surgery (68% vs. 18%, P <0. 01). The median duration of postoperative catheterization was significantly shorter in NRSH group (8 - 23 days, median 8 days) than that in CRH group ( 8 - 32 days, median 20 days; P < 0. 01 ). Neither surgery-related injury nor pathologically positive margin was reported in either of the groups. Conclusions NSRH is a feasible and safe technique for preserving bladder function. Larger prospective studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of this technique.