SARCOMA BOTRYOIDES OF THE FEMALE GENITAL-TRACT

Results of treating 14 patients with sarcoma botryoides of the female genital tract were reviewed. Nine patients were younger than 4 yr old and 5 were older than 14. Primary tumors were in the vagina (8), cervix (3), vulva (1) and cervicovaginal region (2). All but 1 patient underwent surgery, including wide local excision (1), vaginectomy (1), hysterectomy (1), hysterectomy and vaginectomy (2), anterior exenteration (2) and total pelvic exenteration (6). A combination of vincristine, actinomycin-D and cyclophosphamide was the chemotherapy regimen most frequently administered. Only 1 of the 9 patients receiving chemotherapy died from recurrence. One patient with disease too extensive for surgery received intraarterial vincristine and radiation therapy; 16 yr later she developed an adenosquamous carcinoma of the uterus. Sarcoma recurred in 3 patients. This review of patients treated between 1956 and 1983 reflects the evolution of therapy over 30 yr. Conservative surgery alone was inadequate; therefore, radical (exenterative) surgery was adopted; recently less extensive surgery was combined with chemotherapy, producing satisfactory results.