Statistics and outlook for vaginal cancer
This page is about statistics and what they can tell us about the outlook for people with vaginal cancer.
Statistics and outlook for vaginal cancer
Outlook means your chances of getting better. Your doctor may call this your prognosis. With vaginal cancer, the likely outcome depends on how advanced the cancer is when it is diagnosed (the stage).
Below, we have quite detailed information about the likely outcome of different stages of vaginal cancer. The statistics we use are taken from a variety of sources, including the opinions and experience of the experts who check every section of CancerHelp UK. They are intended as a general guide only. For the more complete picture in your case, you’d have to speak to your own specialist.
We include statistics because people ask for them, but not everyone wishes to read this type of information.
How reliable are cancer statistics?
No statistics can tell you what will happen to you. Your cancer is unique. The same type of cancer can grow at different rates in different people. The statistics cannot tell you about the different treatments people may have had, or how that treatment may have affected their prognosis. There are many individual factors that will affect your treatment and your outlook.
You can view and print the quick guides for all the pages in the Treating vaginal cancer section.
Further down this page, is quite detailed information about the survival rates of different stages of vaginal cancer. We have included it because many people ask us for this type of information. But not everyone who is diagnosed with a cancer wants to read it. If you are not sure whether you want to know at the moment or not, then perhaps you might like to skip this page for now. You can always come back to it. It is important to bear in mind that it is difficult to get accurate survival statistics for vaginal cancer as it is a very rare type of cancer. So the statistics are taken from very small numbers of women and are often combined with statistics for vulval cancer.
There is a section explaining more about the different types of cancer statistics in the CancerHelp UK section on cancer statistics. Unless you are very familiar with medical statistics, you may find it helpful to read this before you read the information below.
Remember - statistics are averages based on large numbers of patients. They cannot predict exactly what will happen to you. No two people are exactly alike and response to treatment also varies from one person to another.
You should feel free to ask your doctor about your prognosis, but not even your doctor can tell you for sure what will happen. You may hear your doctor use the term ‘5 year survival’. It does not mean you will only live 5 years. It relates to the proportion of people in research studies who were still alive 5 years after diagnosis. Doctors follow what happens to people for 5 years after treatment in any research study so that they can accurately compare the results of different treatments.
As with many other types of cancer, the outcome depends on the size and position of the cancer and whether it has spread when it is diagnosed - in other words, the stage of your cancer. Women with smaller tumours generally have a better outcome.
Generally, the survival rates are better for women with cancer in a third or less of the vagina. Tumours involving the whole of the vagina tend to have a poorer prognosis. This is probably just because the tumours are larger. Women from poorer social groups tend to have poorer survival than women from higher socioeconomic groups.
Other factors affecting the overall outcome are age, whether you have symptoms and the grade of the cancer cells (how the cells look under the microscope). Generally, the outlook is better for women who are under 60 when diagnosed. It is also better for women who don’t have symptoms - probably because cancers diagnosed at an earlier stage are less likely to cause symptoms than more advanced cancers.
In the UK, of all the women diagnosed with cancer of the vagina, more than half (58%) will live for 5 years or more after diagnosis. The following survival statistics are taken from the results of various research studies so the statistics can have quite a wide range. They relate to women who had treatment, rather than women who did not have treatment.
Below is specific information about the outlook for the different stages of vaginal cancer.
Stage 0
Between 80 to 90 out of 100 women with VAIN 3 (80 to 90%) live for more than 5 years.
Stage I
Around 4 out of 5 women (80%) diagnosed with stage 1 cancer of the vagina live for 5 years or more.
Stage 2
Around 7 out of 10 women (70%) diagnosed with stage 2 vaginal cancer will live for more than 5 years.
Stage 3
As you might expect, the survival figures are lower for the more advanced stages of vaginal cancer. But the range can be quite wide in different research studies. From 3 to 7 out of 10 women with stage 3 vaginal cancer (30 to 70%) live for 5 years or more.
Stage 4
Stage 4 vaginal cancer is more difficult to control. Between 2 to 4 out of 10 women (20 to 40%) will live for more than 5 years.
Melanoma of the vagina is very rare and has a much poorer outlook than other types of vaginal cancer. Between 15 to 20% of women diagnosed with this type of cancer will survive 5 years or more.
Other factors can affect your prognosis, apart from the stage of your cancer, including
- How well you are overall
- Your age
- The grade of your cancer
Grade describes what the cancer cells look like under a microscope. There are 3 grades (from 1 to 3). Cancer cells are graded according to the size and appearance of the control centre (nucleus) of the cells.
Grade 1 cells are called low grade or well differentiated cancers. Although they are cancer cells, the cells are closer to the normal end of the scale from normal to very abnormal. They are the slowest growing cancers and least likely to spread.
Grade 3 cells are high grade or ‘poorly differentiated’ cancers. The cells are at the very abnormal end of the range between normal and very malignant. These cancers are likely to be the fastest growing and most likely to spread.
Doctors also have a way of grading how well you are. They call this your performance status. A score of 0 means you are completely able to look after yourself. A score of 1 means you can do most things for yourself, but need some help. The scores continue to go up, depending on how much help you need. For example, if you are weak from losing weight or being in pain, and feel very tired, you will need more day to day help. So your performance score will be at least 1. You may see performance status written ‘PS’.
No statistics can tell you what will happen to you. Your cancer is unique. The same type of cancer can grow at different rates in different people for example. The statistics are not detailed enough to tell you about the different treatments people may have had. And how that treatment may have affected their prognosis. Chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy may help people to live longer as well as relieving symptoms. Many individual factors will determine your treatment and prognosis. If you are fit enough to have treatment, you are likely to do better than average, particular if your cancer is more advanced.
People treated at centres where clinical trials are taking place tend to do better. This is almost certainly because that is where the most expertise is concentrated - research is more likely to take place in specialist centres. For people in the trials, it may be partly to do with having a closer eye kept on them by their doctors than they might if not in a trial - for example, more scans and blood tests.
There is detailed information about clinical trials in the trials and research section of CancerHelp UK. You can also search the clinical trials database for trials into vaginal cancer. If vaginal cancer trials are listed, ‘vaginal’ will be on the drop down menu of cancer types.
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