Imaging tumours of the penis

Malignant primary epithelial tumours of the penis are rare and mainly affect uncircumcised men in their fifties to seventies. They are most frequently located in the glans and foreskin. Imaging is performed if the clinician has doubts about deep extension, after a diagnostic biopsy. High-resolution ultrasound and above all MRI are used to detect invasion of the corpora cavernosa and spongiosum. The lesion is often seen as a moderate T2 hyposignal, making it possible to distinguish it from the relative hypersignal of the corpora cavernosa. The sentinel lymph nodes are inguinal. Adenopathy is frequently present, but does not, however, necessarily reflect tumour invasion, as secondary infection of the lesion, which is often ulcerated, is common. The prognosis for T1 N0 tumours is good, at the cost of mutilating ablation. Extension to the lymph nodes is detrimental. Non-epithelial tumours and metastases are even rarer.