Twenty-six patients with advanced or recurrent cancer of the vagina no longer amenable to control with surgery and/or radiotherapy were entered into a phase II study of cisplatin 50 mg/m2 intravenously every 3 weeks. Two were deemed ineligible because of a primary site of origin other than vagina. Two were deemed inevaluable, one because of the lack of measurable disease and the other because she never received drug. The remaining 22 included a variety of histologies (16 squamous cell carcinomas, 2 adenosquamous carcinomas, 1 clear cell carcinoma, 1 leiomyosarcoma, and 2 carcinomas not otherwise specified). One complete responder was observed among the 16 patients with squamous cell carcinoma. Adverse effects were tolerable and were essentially those reported in other series. These results suggest that cisplatin has insignificant activity in advanced or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina at least at the dose and schedule tested. No comment can be made regarding the activity of cisplatin in other histologies.