Differential diagnosis of vulvar cancer : Done by inspection?

Vulvar cancer is one of the malignancies with increasing incidence over the last decade and represents the fourth most common genital cancer in women with a high disease burden. Recent data from the Robert Koch Institute show that vulvar cancer is now more frequent in Germany than cervical cancer. Vulvar cancer was previously known as a cancer of older women but more and more young women are being diagnosed with this tumor entity, partly due to persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. Young women with vulvar cancer pose a special challenge for gynecologists. Unspecific symptoms mimicking benign vulvar diseases and hidden localization may lead to delayed diagnosis in a more advanced stage of disease. If the lesion would be diagnosed earlier in the stage of preinvasive disease, women could be treated less invasively reducing the amount of surgical mutilation of the vulva and psychological symptoms. © 2017, Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH.