It is almost always seen in postmenopausal women. Most of the tumors are squamous cell, although other cell types have been described. The spread is usually by local invasion.
Prognosis is poor, especially with greater depth of invasion and with adenopathy.
The treatment is usually radical surgery, i.e., radical vulvectomy for an attempted cure. It is almost always seen in postmenopausal females. The tumor on MRI appears as a solid mass that interrupts the normal zonal anatomy of the vaginal canal. Vaginal carcinomas tend to spread by direct extension into the endometrium, or they can extend inferiorly into the lower part of the vaginal canal. The lesions that are in the upper vaginal canal usually behave like cervical cancer and can spread to the obturator and internal iliac nodes, whereas the vaginal lesions that are in the lower half to lower third tend to spread like vulvar cancer to inguinal nodes.