Radical surgical approach for invasive cancer of the vagina in a young patient

Primary cancer of the vagina is a rare situation, more than half of the cases being met in patients between the seventh and ninth decades of life, which usually develops in the upper third of the vagina. The mainstay of treatment consists of external beam radiation therapy in association with brachytherapy and concurrent chemotherapy; however in cases in which the tumor persists after oncologic treatment surgery should be performed. We present the case of a 47-year-old patient diagnosed with a distal third vaginal cancer in which the tumor persisted after chemoirradiation so that she was submitted to a radical surgical approach.