Carcinoma of the penis: experience from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital Lagos, Nigeria

Carcinoma of penis is rare in countries where neonatal mate circumcision is the tradition and in Nigeria it is a common practice amongst almost all the tribes.

This is to document the prevalence, age distribution, site and histologic types of penile carcinoma at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital Idi-Araba over a 20 year period.

Cases of the penile carcinoma recorded in the surgical pathology register of the Department of Morbid Anatomy, the Cancer Registry and the Medical Records Department of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital over a twenty year period were reviewed. Information extracted included the age, site of lesion, and histopathologic type. The histopathology slides were reexamined to confirm the diagnosis and to grade the lesion. The data was analyzed using simple statistical methods.

There were 7 cases of carcinoma of the penis accounting for 1.9% of malignant lesions of the male genital tracts in LUTH, 3 (42.85%) of which were on the shaft of the penis. The ages of the patients ranged from 42-79 years with a mean of 52.2 years, majority (42.92) of the cases were inthe 5th decade. All the cases were well differentiated squamous cell carcinomas.

Carcinoma of the penis is rare in Lagos, Nigeria. This may be attributed to the common practice of neonatal male circumcision in Nigeria.