Vulvar squamous cell carcinoma in a hiv-1 infected patient with first-line antiretroviral therapy failure

Abstract

Vulvar cancer has been rarely reported in the literature. In young women, it is most often caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), whereas in postmenopausal women, in whom this cancer is more common, it would be caused by estrogen deficiency. Moreover, HIV infection increases the risk of developing vulvar cancer in HIV-positive women as a consequence of the high prevalence of HPV infection in these subjects. Thus, in patients with suspected vulva lesion, biopsy followed by anatomo-pathological examination should be performed in order to establish the diagnosis. We here report a case of vulvar squamous cell carcinoma in a HIV-1-positive patient with first-line antiretroviral therapy (ARV) failure.