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. 2025 Apr;51(4):108707.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejso.2024.108707. Epub 2024 Sep 26.

Prevalence and indicators of cure of Italian women with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma: A population-based study

Lauro Bucchi  1 , Fabiola Giudici  2 , Federica Toffolutti  2 , Angela De Paoli  3 , Silvia Mancini  1 , Mario Preti  4 , Gemma Gatta  5 , Stefano Ferretti  6 , Emanuele Crocetti  2 , Anna Rita Fiore  3 , Ettore Bidoli  2 , Adele Caldarella  7 , Fabio Falcini  1 , Alessio Gili  8 , Francesco Cuccaro  9 , Maria Letizia Gambino  10 , Claudia Casella  11 , Rossella Cavallo  12 , Margherita Ferrante  13 , Enrica Migliore  14 , Giuliano Carrozzi  15 , Antonino Musolino  16 , Walter Mazzucco  17 , Cinzia Gasparotti  18 , Mario Fusco  19 , Paola Ballotari  20 , Giuseppe Sampietro  21 , Lucia Mangone  22 , William Mantovani  23 , Giuseppe Cascone  24 , Michael Mian  25 , Federica Manzoni  26 , Maria Teresa Pesce  27 , Rocco Galasso  28 , Francesca Bella  29 , Pietro Seghini  30 , Anna Clara Fanetti  31 , Daniela Piras  32 , Pasquala Pinna  33 , Diego Serraino  2 , Stefano Guzzinati  3 , Luigino Dal Maso  34 ; AIRTUM Working Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Prevalence and indicators of cure of Italian women with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma: A population-based study

Lauro Bucchi et al. Eur J Surg Oncol. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: Five-year net survival and conditional survival from vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) patients in Italy have shown no progress during the past three decades. This study aims to estimate the complete prevalence and multiple indicators of cure.

Methods: Observed prevalence was estimated using 31 Italian cancer registries covering 47 % of Italian women. A subset of 22 cancer registries was used to estimate model-based long-term survival and indicators of cure, i.e., complete prevalence, cure fraction (CF), time to cure (TTC), proportion of 'already cured' patients, and cure prevalence.

Results: In 2018, VSCC patients alive in Italy (complete prevalence) were 6620 or 22 per 100,000 women. The cure fraction (the proportion of newly diagnosed patients who will not die of VSCC) did not change between 2000 and 2010 both for all patients (32 %) and in each age group. The time to cure (5-year conditional net survival >95 %) was 11 years for patients aged ≥44 years, but excess mortality remained for >15 years in the other age groups. This led to a negligible (5 %) proportion of 'already cured' patients (living longer than time to cure). The proportion of patients alive <2 years (21 %) was the same as that of patients surviving ≥15 years. The cure prevalence (patients who will not die of VSCC) was 64 %. A considerable proportion of patients will not be cured even among those who survived ≥5 years.

Conclusion: There is an urgent need to reshape the current vulvar care model in Italy.

Keywords: Cancer registries; Cancer survivors; Complete prevalence; Cure fraction; Long-term survival; Vulvar squamous cell carcinoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest Emanuele Crocetti declares an epidemiological advice for Astrazeneca, not related to this study. The author Gemma Gatta is a Guest Editor for the European Journal of Surgical Oncology and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article.

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