The present paper examined the influence of patient age, surgical T stage, tumor size, tumor differentiation and lymphnodal status on the clinical outcome of 29 patients with primary vulvar squamous cell carcinoma treated with radical surgery. Eighteen patients underwent radical vulvectomy with bilateral inguinal-femoral lymphadenectomy alone; 10 patients had additional bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy; another patient had additional bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy and anterior pelvic exenteration for a carcinoma of the clitoris involving the urethra. Nine patients developed relapsing disease; the site of recurrence was local in 4 patients, inguinal in 2, both local and inguinal in one patient, pelvic in one, both pelvic and distant in one. Eight recurrences occurred within 24 months from surgery; another patient developed an inguinal recurrence 45 months after operation. The actuarial 5-year disease-free survival rates were as follows: 64% for patients younger than 70 years and 63% for patients 70 years of age or older (p = not significant); 79% for patients with surgical T1-T2 stage disease and 30% for those with surgical T3 stage disease (p = 0.01); 88% for patients with tumor size less than 3 cm and 31% for those with tumor size greater than 3 cm (p less than 0.001); 66% for patients with well or moderately differentiated tumor and 51% for those with poorly differentiated tumor (p = not significant); 82% for patients with negative groin lymph nodes and 39% for those with positive groin lymph nodes (p less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)