Penile Cancer in Cali, Colombia: 10 Years of Casuistry in a Tertiary Referral Center of a Middle-Income Country

Background: Penile cancer is a rare disease in Colombia; in Cali, it represents 0.7% of all cancers. Penile cancer has been associated with old age, bad hygiene, smoking and lack of circumcision. This study aimed to describe the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients with penile cancer who consulted to a tertiary referral hospita. Methods:?A case series of all penile cancer cases at a reference institution in Cali during 2001-2010. Socioeconomic, demographic and clinical features of patients were described, and bivariate analyses were carried out. Results:?There were 46 penile cancer cases. The average age was 60 ± 16.9 years. The main reason for consultation was an exophytic mass on the penis (75.0%). The most common location was the glans (69.6%), and the more frequent histology type was the squamous cell carcinoma (95.7%). With regard to risk factors, 65.5% of the patients had history of smoking and 90.9% did not have circumcision. Patients who underwent radical amputation had higher rates of positive nodes (55% vs. 13.5%, p=0.015) and ulcerative lesions (77.8% vs. 29.7%, p=0.018) than those who did not have the procedure done. Recurrence was associated with the presence of lymphadenopathy (p=0.02) and history of circumcision (p=0.015). Conclusion:?Most of the patients with penile cancer found in this study had old age, history of tobacco use and lack of circumcision. Patients who presented with lymph node metastasis had to undergo more radical procedures and suffered a greater rate of recurrence compared with those without lymph node involvement. Robust studies to determine the risk factors among low-income populations are required.