Global Implications in Caring for Penile Cancer: Similarities and Divergences

Penile cancer is a rare malignancy with a dichotomy between its incidence and evidence generation. The objective of this review is to highlight the points of consensus and divergences in penile cancer care and suggest areas where further research is needed to standardize treatment protocols.

International guidelines and articles in PubMed and Medline were searched for studies on various aspects of penile cancer care.

Across penile cancer care, divergences significantly outnumber similarities at present. The rarity of this disease coupled with paucity of research efforts from regions with a relatively higher incidence are the obvious reasons. The aspect with the most discrepancy is the management of inguinal nodal disease. Also, the role and sequencing of chemotherapy and radiotherapy along with surgery for the management of advanced disease needs to be defined. Collaborative research that has already begun with the establishment of the Global Society of Rare Genitourinary Tumors (GSRGT) can fill in these knowledge gaps in favor of similarities.

Nurses are an integral component of the multidisciplinary team that manages patients with penile cancer. This review summarizes the different management options that might be offered to these patients due to lack of standardization and consensus. It makes the nursing fraternity aware of the various per-operative and quality-of-life issues of each management option so that they are in a position to coordinate the management pathway.