What Is Vaginal Cancer?
Vaginal cancer is one of the most rarely occurring cancer types originating from the vagina of a woman. Usually, vaginal cancer affects the cells forming the lining of the vaginal surface. Many cancers originating from other body parts can also affect our vagina, but they are not vaginal cancer; cancer that spread from other organ to the vagina is referred to as metastatic cancer.
Vaginal cancers detected at early stages of the disease have higher chances of recovery. Similarly, treating vaginal cancer that has spread outside the vagina is extremely challenging. However, detecting the disease at an early stage is difficult as early vaginal cancer might not show up any symptom. With progression of vaginal cancer, the patient starts experiencing symptoms like:
- Abnormal vaginal bleeding
- Secretion of a water substance form the vagina
- Painful urination
- Formation of a lump within the vagina
- Pelvic pain
- Constipation
What are the types of vaginal cancer? Depending on the cell type from where the cancer is originating, vaginal cancer is categorized into 4 types; they are:
Squamous cell carcinomas: This cancer types starts from squamous cells of the vagina i.e. the flat and thin cells lining the vaginal surface. Majority of vaginal cancers are squamous cell carcinomas.
Adenocarcinomas: This cancer type begins from glandular cells present in the vagina.
Sarcomas: Cancers starting from the muscle cells or the connective tissues forming the walls of our vagina are called sarcomas.
Melanomas: Cancers beginning from the melanocytes or pigment producing cells of the vagina are referred to as melanomas.
What are the vaginal cancer causes? Like most other cancer forms scientists have not yet identified any particular cause of vaginal cancer. However, medical researchers have found out certain risk factors of the disease. Below we have discussed some risk factors of vaginal cancer:
Increasing age: Aging increases a woman's risk of suffering from vaginal cancer. Majority of the vaginal cancer diagnosis occurs in women above the age of 50 years.
Presence of vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia or VAIN: Women suffering from VAIN are at higher risk of developing vaginal cancer compared to those who do not have any such problem. Women with VAIN have vaginal cells that appear to be different than the normal cells; however, the difference is not enough for being considered as cancer. VAIN, which is a result of infection caused by HPV or human papillomavirus might later turn into cancer or can also remain benign. Human papillomavirus is also responsible for causing other cancer types like vulvular and cervical cancer.
Exposure to drugs meant for preventing miscarriage: Female children of the mothers taking a drug known as diethylstilbestrol in time of pregnancy during the 1950s possess greater risk of developing a vaginal cancer type known as clear cell adenocarcinomas.
