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Bartholin gland carcinoma is a very rare vulvar cancer arising in the lubricating glands at the entrance to the vagina, often mistaken at first for a cyst or abscess in a postmenopausal woman. It can be a squamous cancer, an adenocarcinoma or an adenoid cystic carcinoma, each behaving differently; it is treated with surgery and radiotherapy borrowed from vulvar cancer, having no trials of its own.
Bartholin gland carcinoma is an extremely rare condition with no phase 3 trials, consensus or guidelines; of 275 reported cases with histology specified in 90.4 percent, 30.7 percent were squamous cell carcinoma, 29.6 percent adenoid cystic carcinoma and 25 percent adenocarcinoma, and adenocarcinoma histotype and positive nodes correlated with worse prognosis (Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology 2017). Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin gland, with about 60 cases reported by 2007, is a slow-growing but locally very aggressive tumour with cribriform architecture, perineural and lymphatic invasion and a high capacity for recurrence and pain (Archives of Pathology 2007). Bartholin gland tumours are 0.1 to 5 percent of vulvar neoplasms (Archives of Pathology 2007).
How it differs from its parent: the vulvar cancer page covers HPV-associated and HPV-independent squamous carcinoma; Bartholin gland carcinoma is deep rather than surface disease, presents as a mass in the posterior labium, includes glandular and adenoid cystic types with their own spread patterns (perineural for adenoid cystic, nodal for adenocarcinoma) and needs deeper surgical margins.
How common: 0.1 to 5 percent of vulvar neoplasms (Archives of Pathology 2007).
Treatment: wide or radical local excision with inguinofemoral node assessment, postoperative radiotherapy for close margins, node involvement or adenoid cystic histology, and chemoradiation for advanced disease, following the vulvar cancer page; centralisation to referral centres is recommended (Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology 2017).
0.1 to 5 percent of vulvar neoplasms (Archives of Pathology 2007); 275 cases had been reported in 133 publications by 2017, so no phase 3 trial exists (Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology 2017).
Most high-grade ovarian cancers begin at the tip of the fallopian tube; endometrial cancer lines the uterus, cervical cancer starts at the transformation zone; each drains to a different node group.
Same organ: Adenosquamous carcinoma of the cervix, Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix, Vulvar melanoma, Vaginal melanoma, High-grade serous ovarian cancer, Low-grade serous ovarian cancer, Clear cell ovarian cancer, Mucinous ovarian cancer, Adult granulosa cell tumour of the ovary, Ovarian cancer, Endometrial cancer, Cervical cancer, Vulvar cancer, Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, Uterine sarcoma, Vaginal cancer, POLE-ultramutated endometrial cancer, Mismatch-repair-deficient endometrial cancer, p53-abnormal endometrial cancer, including uterine serous carcinoma, Endometrial cancer with no specific molecular profile, Advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer, Uterine carcinosarcoma, Early cervical cancer and fertility-sparing surgery, Locally advanced cervical cancer, Recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, Platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, Platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, HPV-associated vulvar squamous cell carcinoma, HPV-independent vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (p53-mutant), Vaginal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV-associated), Vaginal adenocarcinoma (including DES-associated clear cell adenocarcinoma), Low-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (FIGO score 0 to 6), High-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (FIGO score 7 or more, including ultra-high-risk), Placental-site trophoblastic tumour and epithelioid trophoblastic tumour
Wide or radical excision with node assessment; postoperative radiotherapy for close margins, nodes or adenoid cystic histology; chemoradiation for advanced disease as on the vulvar cancer page.
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Query for this cancer: (TITLE:"Bartholin gland carcinoma" OR ABSTRACT:"Bartholin gland carcinoma" OR TITLE:"Bartholin gland cancer" OR ABSTRACT:"Bartholin gland cancer" OR TITLE:"Carcinoma of the Bartholin gland" OR ABSTRACT:"Carcinoma of the Bartholin gland" OR TITLE:"Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin gland" OR ABSTRACT:"Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin gland") AND (treatment OR therapy OR trial OR survival OR diagnosis). Results are unfiltered search hits about Bartholin gland carcinoma, not a curated reading list.
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