Genital treatment of penile carcinoma

Squamous penile carcinoma is an uncommon neoplastic disease with an incidence of one in 100 000 men per year in Western countries. The role of penile-sparing treatment represents one of the three main issues in management of squamous carcinoma of the penis. Most authors consider conservative therapy as an indicated alternative treatment to partial or total penectomy in small size, low stage and grade tumours. At present, external or interstitial beam radiotherapy and lasertherapy represent the best available conservative therapeutic approaches. Another issue is the role of prophylactic inguinal lymphadenectomy in patients with negative palpable nodes. An early inguinal lymphadenectomy is indicated especially in patients with a high occult nodal micrometastases risk (G3 and pT2-4). The third point of discussion is represented by the use of chemotherapy in patients with metastatic disease. In this stage of disease, polychemotherapy with cisplatin, methotrexate and bleomycin seems to be more effective. The small number of patients investigated and the rapid evolution of the disease make it extremely difficult to carry out suitable perspective studies.