A total of 76 cases from 4 teaching hospitals was reviewed. Of 24 patients with well or moderately differentiated noninvasive primary tumors 1 had regional metastases compared to 43 of 52 patients with poorly differentiated or invasive tumors. By classifying disease according to the depth of invasion and degree of differentiation of the primary lesions a high degree of accuracy could be obtained in predicting the likelihood of positive groin nodes. Removing groin nodes that are microscopically positive improves the survival rate over that of delayed lymphadenectomy. Extensive KS of the genitalia progressed and caused penile gangrene in 2 cases.
Management is palliative with urinary diversion via percutaneous suprapubic cystostomy.
Recent progress in molecular biology suggests a certain relationship between the penile cancer and human papillomavirus infection. The relationship between carcinomas of the penis and cervix uteri is very important in married couples. Genital HPV infections manifest themselves as condylomas. Men who carry the virus must be identified and treated. The authors discuss the current therapy and present rare cases of penis carcinoma whose etiology is connected with HPV inflammation.