Sarcomas of the vagina.

The clinical and patholgic features of 16 cases of vaginal sarcoma are assessed. There were 5 embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas, 5 leiomyosarcomas, 2 reticulum cell sarcomas, 1 malignant schwannoma, 1 müllerian stromal sarcoma, and 2 pleomorphic sarcomas that could not be classified as to cell type. The rhabdomyosarcoma occurred exclusively in infants and children, and all 5 patients died of their disease with locally infiltrative recurrences and/or disseminated metastases. The commonest sarcoma in adults was leiomyosarcoma, there being 5 examples in the series. Three of the 4 patients with survival information were clinically free of disease 2 years, 4 years, and 8 years after diagnosis and treatment. Two patients with reticulum cell sarcoma succumbed to their disease within a few months. Local recurrences were common for all types of sarcoma in this series, suggesting that more aggressive initial treatment is mandatory if recurrences are to be prevented and the survival rates improved. In general, the vaginal sarcomas in adults pursued a less aggressive course than the rhabdomyosarcomas of infancy and childhood.