How is vaginal cancer treated?

How each cancer is treated depends on many things.The first and one of the most important is staging.The second is weather or not there is lymph node involvement?You may have a very early stage cancer that may be operable,a stage 2 or 3 cancer that may be helped with radiotherapy alone ,or a late,stage 4 cancer whos treatment may need a combination of chemo/radio therapy and then an operation.The main form of treatment in a stage 4 vaginal cancer is with mitomyacin and 5FU as chemotherapy with mitomyacin given on the first day only followed by a week on. 2 weeks off regime which is repeated whilst undergoing a 6 week course of radiotherapy,usually 30 doses on a Mon-Frid with weekends off.it is then usual to wait around 2-3 months,as both chemo and radio work cumulativly,which means after this first 6 weeks of treatment the drugs are still active in your system and working to help shrink the tumor further,and then another biopsy would be performed to see if the treatment has been sucessful or not.If it has then you would undergo regular biopsies to make sure you remain cancer free.If not,the next round of treatment would be similar ,or by using surgical means to remove any left over cancer cells.Both chemo and especially radiotherapy given this agressively are very effective in treating vaginal cancer but can have devastating and longlasting effects on your body.This all depends on the individual and it is best to speak to your healthcare professional/oncologist as all treatments vary.