Vaginal Cancer Surgery

Types of vaginal cancer surgery

No two women are exactly the same, and neither are their surgeries. The type of surgery to remove vaginal cancer will depend on the amount of the cancer in the body. Our tumor board will carefully evaluate your diagnosis and determine the best approach. 

• Laser therapy or surgery involves using a narrow beam of high-energy light to vaporize precancerous tissue or non-invasive cancer. The laser beam makes bloodless cuts to remove cancerous tissue or a tumor.  
• Local is done by removing the cancer and a thin edge of the nearby normal tissue. In some cases, a local incision may be all that’s needed to treat vaginal cancer.
• Vaginectomy is the removal of the vagina. Depending on the location and stage of vaginal cancer, a partial vaginectomy or total (radical) vaginectomy may be done.
• Vaginal reconstruction may be performed when all or part of the vagina must be removed. Intestinal tissue, skin, or muscle grafts may be used to create a new vagina. Rebuilding the vagina with tissue from another part of the body allows you to have sex after surgery. 

We use special technologies to vaporize the cancerous tumor and remove any tumor cells that we find during surgery. If vaginal cancer has spread, your surgeon may remove the lymph nodes in the spleen, the bowel diaphragm, and binding tissues in the abdomen.