Peile cancer

Penile cancer is a rare disease with an incidence of 3 out of 100 000 men and year. The disease is more common among elderly men, although one third of the men are below 60 years of age at time of diagnosis. Several predisposing factors for penile cancer are known, such as smoking and phimosis (inability to retract the foreskin) and lately it has also been discussed if a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection could increase the risk for penile cancer development, since the frequency of men with a HPV infection among penile cancer patients is high.

The treatment for penile cancer today is mainly surgery and comprises removing the primary tumor and surgical staging of lymph node status (so called sentinel node detection). The surgical techniques used are both laser surgery and plastic surgery compromising both skin transplant and amputation of the penis.

The research on penile cancer within the Urological cancer research environment focuses on e.g. sexological aspects and life quality during the disease, the risk of relapse and survival after different treatment options as well as HPV as both a risk factor and a prognostic factor.