Penis

C60WHO Vol. 8

Male Reproductive System

Prognosis

This section is being prepared by our editorial process.

🔬 Histological Types

📚 Latest Research

2026-09-09

Epidemiological trends in penile cancer and the evolving role of dynamic sentinel lymph node biopsy.

Hehir CM, et al

A population-based Irish study of 866 penile cancer patients diagnosed between 1994 and 2021 found that dynamic sentinel lymph node biopsy (DSLNBx) was associated with a statistically significant improvement in overall survival (χ² (1) = 4.067, P = 0.044). Over the study period, the population-standardised incidence of penile cancer nearly doubled, rising from 1.68 to 2.80 cases per 100,000 males per year, with squamous cell carcinoma accounting for 92.8% of all cases. DSLNBx was performed in only 8% of patients, of whom 13% had node-positive disease, highlighting the procedure's value in identifying microscopic metastases that conventional imaging misses. The findings support wider adoption of DSLNBx as a minimally morbid staging tool that may translate into meaningful survival gains for patients with this rare but aggressive malignancy.

Urologic oncology

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2026-09-09

Premature mortality and years of potential productive life lost due to HPV-attributable cancers in Brazil and Mexico: 2011 Versus 2023.

Pungartnik PC, et al

A population-based study of HPV-attributable cancer mortality in Brazil and Mexico found a persistent and growing burden of premature death between 2011 and 2023, with total HPV-attributable deaths rising from 6,515 to 9,533 in Brazil (years of life lost +44.6%) and from 4,303 to 4,997 in Mexico (years of life lost +21.4%). Penile cancer years of life lost increased by 54.8% in Brazil and 37.7% in Mexico over this period, while anal cancer showed the largest relative increases — up to +203.8% among Brazilian men — and oropharyngeal cancer years of life lost rose 33.5% in Brazil and 74.6% in Mexico. By 2023, years of potential productive life lost totaled 97,404 years in Brazil and 51,735 years in Mexico, representing increases of 43.9% and 26.7% relative to 2011, respectively. The authors conclude that expanded HPV vaccination, systematic screening, timely diagnosis, and equitable treatment access are urgently needed across all HPV-associated cancer sites in both countries.

Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics

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2026-09-07

p16 Overexpression and Human Papillomavirus Positivity in More Than 1000 Penile Cancers.

Stærk MG, et al

In a large population-based Danish study of 1,028 penile squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) diagnosed between 1995 and 2020, 42.8% of tumors were p16 positive and 37.8% were double positive for both p16 protein overexpression and high-risk HPV (hrHPV) DNA, with no significant change in these proportions over the 25-year study period. The strongest association was seen in basaloid SCCs, where double positivity reached 63.6%–87.5%, confirming that p16 immunohistochemistry is a reliable surrogate marker for hrHPV in clinical diagnostics. Strikingly, 97.9% of all double-positive cases harbored hrHPV genotypes covered by the 9-valent HPV vaccine (HPV16/18/31/33/45/52/58), indicating that near-universal vaccination coverage could substantially reduce the future incidence of penile cancer in Denmark.

International journal of cancer

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