What Is Penile Cancer?
Penile cancer develops in or on the penis. Cancer starts when cells begin to grow out of control. Cells in nearly any part of the body can become cancer, and can spread to
other areas in the body. To learn more about how cancers start and spread, see What Is Cancer?
To understand penile cancer, it helps to know about the normal structure and function of the penis.
About the penis
The penis is the external male sexual organ, as well as part of the urinary system. It has several types of body tissues, including skin, nerves, smooth muscle, and blood vessels.
The main part of the penis is known as the shaft, and the head of the penis is called the glans. At birth, the glans is covered by a piece of skin called the foreskin, or prepuce. The foreskin is often removed in infant boys in an operation called a circumcision.
Inside the penis are 3 chambers that contain a soft, spongy network of blood vessels. Two of these cylinder-shaped chambers, known as the corpora cavernosa, are on either side of the upper part of the penis. The third chamber is below them and is known as the corpus spongiosum. This chamber widens at its end to form the glans. The corpus spongiosum surrounds the urethra, a thin tube that starts at the bladder and runs through the penis. Urine and semen travel through the urethra and leave the body through an opening in the glans of the penis, called the meatus.
When a man gets an erection, nerves signal his body to store blood in the vessels inside the corpora cavernosa. As the blood fills the chambers, the spongy tissue expands, causing the penis to elongate and stiffen. During ejaculation, semen (which contains sperm cells and fluids) enters the urethra and passes out of the body through the meatus. After ejaculation, the blood flows back into the body, and the penis becomes soft again.
What Are the Risk Factors for Penile Cancer?
A risk factor is anything that affects your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. Some cancer risk factors, like smoking, can be changed. Others, like a person’s age or family history, can’t be changed.
But having a risk factor, or even several, does not mean that you will get the disease. On the other hand, some men who develop penile cancer have no known risk factors.
Scientists have found certain risk factors that make a man more likely to develop penile cancer.
Treatment of Penile Cancer
After the cancer is found and staged, your cancer care team will discuss treatment options with you. You should take time and think about all of your choices. In choosing a treatment plan, some factors to consider include:
- The type and stage of your cancer
- Your overall physical health
- Your personal preferences about treatments and their side effects
The main types of treatments used to treat penile cancers are:
- Surgery
- Local therapy (other than surgery) for some very early penile cancers
- Radiation therapy
- Chemotherapy
Surgery is the main treatment for most penile cancers, but sometimes radiation therapy may be used, either instead of or in addition to surgery. Other local treatments might also be used for early-stage tumors. Chemotherapy may be given for some larger tumors or if the cancer has spread.
Depending on the type and stage of your cancer and your treatment options, you might have different types of doctors on your treatment team, including:
- A urologist: a surgeon who specializes in diseases of the male genitals and urinary tract
- A radiation oncologist: a doctor who uses radiation to treat cancer
- A medical oncologist: a doctor who uses chemotherapy and other medicines to treat cancer
Many other specialists might be part of your treatment team as well, including other doctors, physician assistants (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), nurses, psychologists, social workers, rehabilitation specialists, and other health professionals.