The incidence of penile cancer – Correspondence-DOI:10.37072/JCS.2021.02.03

*Florin BACANU MD, Ph.D., Medical Oncology Senior Specialist,
Member of the National Society of Medical Oncology in Romania

Questions:

1. How to explain the fact that genital neoplasms in women (affecting the cervix, vagina, or vulva) are much more common (incidence of 25 per 100,000 in Romania compared to 10/100,000 women worldwide, ranking second after breast cancer), while penile cancer is very rare (representing less than 1% of man’s malignancies)?
   Keywords:
   HPV infection, cancer, uterine cervix, penis
   Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is involved 100% in the etiology of genital neoplasms in women and, respectively, 40% in the determinism of penis cancer. As HPV infection is a sexually transmitted disease, a higher incidence of penile cancer would be expected.