Vulvar cancer staging

Overview
Staging and treatment are generally handled by an oncologist familiar with gynecologic cancer. The extent of the surgery is dictated by the surgical staging.

Staging
Preclinical staging has been supplemented by surgical staging since 1988. FIGO’s revised staging TNM classification system uses criteria of tumor size (T), involvement of lymph nodes (N), and metastasis (M). Stage I describes the early stage of the cancer that still appears to be confined to the site of origin, stage II and III define less or more extensive extensions to neighboring tissue and lymph nodes, while stage IV indicates metastatic disease.