About vaginal cancer

Cancer in the vagina can be either a primary or secondary cancer. The two types of cancer are different and are often treated differently.

Learn more about:

• What are primary and secondary vaginal cancers?
• Main types of primary vaginal cancer
• About the vagina
• Who gets vaginal cancer?
• Precancerous vaginal cell changes
• What causes vaginal cancer?

What are primary and secondary vaginal cancers?

Primary vaginal cancer

This is cancer that starts in the vagina. This information is only about primary vaginal cancer.

Secondary vaginal cancer

This is cancer that has spread (metastasised) to the vagina from a primary cancer in another part of the body, such as the cervix, uterus, vulva, bladder or bowel. Secondary vaginal cancer is much more common than primary vaginal cancer.

For more on this, learn about the original cancer, see Living with advanced cancer, and speak to your treatment team.

Main types of primary vaginal cancer

The 2 main types of primary vaginal cancer are named after the cells they start in.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)

• starts in thin, flat (squamous) skin cells lining the vagina
• most common type (about 9 out of 10 cases)

Adenocarcinoma

• develops from the mucus-producing (glandular) cells in the vagina
• includes clear cell carcinoma
• less common type (less than 1 out of 10 cases)

There are also rarer types of vaginal cancer. These include melanomas, which start in skin cells called melanocytes; sarcomas, which start in the muscle; and lymphomas, which start in the white blood cells.

About the vagina

Sometimes called the birth canal, the vagina is a muscular tube about 7–10 cm long that extends from the cervix to the vulva (external genitals). The vaginal opening is where menstrual blood flows out of the body during a period, sexual intercourse occurs, and a baby leaves the body. The vagina is part of the female reproductive system, which also includes the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix and vulva.

The female reproductive system

Who gets vaginal cancer?

Vaginal cancer is one of the rarest types of cancer affecting the female reproductive system (gynaecological cancer). About 120 women are diagnosed with vaginal cancer each year in Australia.

Anyone with a vagina can get vaginal cancer – women, transgender men, non-binary people and intersex people. For more information, speak to your doctor or see LGBTQI+ people and cancer.

What causes vaginal cancer?

The exact cause of vaginal cancer is unknown, but there are several factors that increase the risk of developing it.

Human papillomavirus (HPV)

Many cases of vaginal cancer are caused by infection with HPV, which is a very common virus in people who are sexually active. About 4 out of 5 people will become infected with one type of genital HPV at some time in their lives. HPV often causes no symptoms. Only some types of HPV cause cancer, and most people with HPV don’t develop vaginal or any other type of cancer. It can be many years between infection with HPV and the first signs of HSIL or vaginal cancer.

Other risk factors

Although HPV infection and vaginal HSIL are the main risk factors, other things that increase the risk include:

• previously having HSIL of the cervix or cervical cancer
• smoking tobacco (which can make cancer more likely to develop in people with HPV)
• being aged over 70 (almost half of all vaginal cancers are in women over 70)
• having a weakened immune system
• exposure to a drug called diethylstilbestrol (DES), which was prescribed to pregnant women from the 1940s to the early 1970s to prevent miscarriage. The female children of women who took DES have a small but increased risk of developing clear cell carcinoma of the vagina.

→ READ MORE: Vaginal cancer symptoms