Identification of Risk Factors of Recurrence Among Patients With Vulvar Paget Disease Treated With Conservative Surgery

Abstract

Objectives 

Vulvar Paget disease (VPD) is a benign disease with high recurrence rates. Standard treatment involves conservative surgery with wide local excision of the lesion. The purpose of the present study is to identify factors that increase the risk of relapse.

Materials and Methods 

We conducted a retrospective study and included patients treated with conservative surgery for noninvasive VPD. Cox regression analysis was carried out to assess the independent effect of age, presence of positive margins, tumor size greater than 4 cm, bilateral lesions, and compositive morbidity and pathology on recurrence free survival. Post hoc power analysis was performed with the G-power tool using an α error of 0.05.

Results 

Overall, 39 patients were included with a median age of 70 years (46–85 years). Of those, 19 patients relapsed within a median duration of 30.5 months (5–132 months). Twelve patients (63%) experienced at least a second relapse. The presence of composite comorbidity significantly affected the interval to recurrence (30.09 vs 71.80 months, p = .032). Univariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the presence of composite pathology features was indicative of a higher risk of recurrence (hazard ratio = −3.71, p = .024). The sample size did not allow for adequate power for this latter finding. Microscopically involved tumor margins and tumor size greater than 4 cm did not predict patients at risk of experiencing relapsing disease.

Conclusions 

Patients with noninvasive VPD experience high relapse rates. The presence of concurrent benign vulvar pathology may increase these rates, although larger sample sizes are needed to ascertain our findings.