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Our 24/7 cancer helpline provides information and answers for people dealing with cancer. We can connect you with trained cancer information specialists who will answer questions about a cancer diagnosis and provide guidance and a compassionate ear.
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Our highly trained specialists are available 24/7 via phone and on weekdays can assist through online chat. We connect patients, caregivers, and family members with essential services and resources at every step of their cancer journey. Ask us how you can get involved and support the fight against cancer. Some of the topics we can assist with include:
For medical questions, we encourage you to review our information with your doctor.
For many women with vulvar cancer, treatment can remove or destroy the cancer. The end of treatment can be both stressful and exciting. You may be relieved to finish treatment, but it’s hard not to worry about cancer coming back. This is very common if you’ve had cancer.
For others, the cancer might never go away completely. Some people may get treatments to try and help keep the cancer in check or ease problems it's causing. Learning to live with cancer that does not go away can be difficult and very stressful.
Life after vulvar cancer means returning to some familiar things and making some new choices.
When treatment ends, your doctors will still want to watch you closely. It's very important to go to all of your follow-up appointments. During these visits, your doctors will ask questions about any problems you may have and may do exams and lab tests or x-rays and scans to look for signs of cancer or treatment side effects.
The routine check-up for cancer recurrence is called surveillance. For vulvar cancer, the surveillance schedule typically involves a physical exam, bloodwork, and possibly imaging tests:
Be sure to let your doctor know about any new symptoms or problems, because they could be caused by the cancer coming back or by a new disease or second cancer. Additional testing to look for second cancers in women without symptoms is not recommended.
Almost any cancer treatment can have side effects. Some may last for a few weeks to months, but others can last the rest of your life. This is the time for you to talk to your cancer care team about any changes or problems you notice and any questions or concerns you have.
Lymphedema is a common side effect when lymph nodes are removed as part of surgery for vulvar cancer. Your doctor will talk to you about lymphedema and what you can do to try to keep it from starting. Be sure to tell your doctor about any swelling, heaviness, pain, or skin changes you notice in your genitals or your legs.
Talk with your doctor about developing a survivorship care plan for you. This plan might include:
Even after treatment, it’s very important to keep health insurance. Tests and doctor visits cost a lot, and even though no one wants to think of their cancer coming back, this could happen.
At some point after your cancer treatment, you might find yourself seeing a new doctor who doesn’t know about your medical history. It’s important to keep copies of your medical records to give your new doctor the details of your diagnosis and treatment. Learn more in Keeping Copies of Important Medical Records.
If you have (or have had) vulvar cancer, you probably want to know if there are things you can do that might lower your risk of the cancer growing or coming back, such as exercising, eating a certain type of diet, or taking nutritional supplements. Unfortunately, it’s not yet clear if there are things you can do that will help.
Adopting healthy behaviors such as not smoking, eating well, getting regular physical activity, and staying at a healthy weight might help, but no one knows for sure. However, we do know that these types of changes can have positive effects on your health that can extend beyond your risk of vulvar cancer or other cancers.
So far, no dietary supplements (including vitamins, minerals, and herbal products) have been shown to clearly help lower the risk of vulvar cancer progressing or coming back. This doesn’t mean that no supplements will help, but it’s important to know that none have been proven to do so.
Dietary supplements are not regulated like medicines in the United States – they do not have to be proven effective (or even safe) before being sold, although there are limits on what they’re allowed to claim they can do. If you’re thinking about taking any type of nutritional supplement, talk to your health care team. They can help you decide which ones you can use safely while avoiding those that might be harmful.
If the cancer does recur at some point, your treatment options will depend on where the cancer is located, what treatments you’ve had before, and your overall health. For general information on recurrence, you may want to see Understanding Recurrence.
Women who’ve had vulvar cancer can still get other cancers. In fact, vulvar cancer survivors are at higher risk for getting some other types of cancer.
Some cancer survivors may develop a second, new, unrelated cancer later. No matter what type of cancer you've had, it's still possible to get another (new) cancer, even after surviving the first.
Survivors of vulvar cancer can get any type of second cancer, but they have an increased risk of:
Many of these cancers are linked to smoking and/or infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), which are also risk factors for vulvar cancer,
Some feelings of depression, anxiety, or worry are normal when cancer is a part of your life. Some people are affected more than others. But everyone can benefit from help and support from other people, whether friends and family, religious groups, support groups, professional counselors, or others. Learn more in Life After Cancer.
Developed by the American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team with medical review and contribution by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Faubion SS, MacLaughlin KL, Long ME, Pruthi S, Casey PM. Surveillance and Care of the Gynecologic Cancer Survivor. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2015 Nov;24(11):899-906.
National Comprehensive Cancer Network. NCCN Clinical Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines). Vulvar Cancer. Version 1.2025 – February 10, 2025.
Last Revised: May 2, 2025
American Cancer Society medical information is copyrighted material. For reprint requests, please see our Content Usage Policy.
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