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4 slides generated from the cancer page, with a quiz from the open benchmark and speaker notes that cite the sources. Arrow keys move between slides; Print gives one slide per page.
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.
| Setting | Approach | Guideline |
|---|---|---|
| All types | 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. | not mapped |