Japan Society of Gynecologic Oncology guidelines 2015 for the treatment of vulvar cancer and vaginal cancer

BACKGROUND: Vulvar cancer and vaginal cancer are relatively rare tumors, and there had been no established treatment principles or guidelines to treat these rare tumors in Japan. The first version of the Japan Society of Gynecologic Oncology (JSGO) guidelines for the treatment of vulvar cancer and vaginal cancer was published in 2015 in Japanese. OBJECTIVE: The JSGO committee decided to publish the English version of the JSGO guidelines worldwide, and hope it will be a useful guide to physicians in a similar situation as in Japan. METHODS: The guideline was created according to the basic principles in creating the guidelines of JSGO. RESULTS: The guidelines consist of five chapters and five algorithms. Prior to the first chapter, basic items are described including staging classification and history, classification of histology, and definition of the methods of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy to give the reader a better understanding of the contents of the guidelines for these rare tumors. The first chapter gives an overview of the guidelines, including the basic policy of the guidelines. The second chapter discusses vulvar cancer, the third chapter discusses vaginal cancer, and the fourth chapter discusses vulvar Paget’s disease and malignant melanoma. Each chapter includes clinical questions, recommendations, backgrounds, objectives, explanations, and references. The fifth chapter provides supplemental data for the drugs that are mentioned in the explanation of clinical questions. CONCLUSION: Overall, the objective of these guidelines is to clearly delineate the standard of care for vulvar and vaginal cancer with the goal of ensuring a high standard of care for all women diagnosed with these rare diseases. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10147-017-1193-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.