Lao Zhou, 45 years old this year, was a little itchy when he was urinating half a month ago. He didn't care at first, until one day, he found a lump like cauliflower growing on the distal end of his penis, which was uneven to the touch. Now he became nervous. Could it be that he

Lao Zhou, 45 years old this year, When he was urinating half a month ago, he felt a little itchy . He didn't care at first, Until one day, he found a lump like cauliflower growing on the distal end of his penis, which was uneven to the touch. Now he became nervous. Could it be that he was sick?

Lao Zhou felt a little uneasy, so the next day, he came to the hospital early in the morning and went to the urology department. After the doctor carefully checked the lesion site, he took a piece of tissue for pathological sections. The final diagnosis report read "Squamous epithelial cancer of the penis", This was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for Lao Zhou.

Doctor said to Lao Zhou: " Penis cancer generally has to do with too long foreskin , penis inflammation and other diseases. "

Lao Zhou regretted it now and thought that it was difficult to clean it, so he often became inflammation. He usually tried to save trouble and took some anti-inflammatory drugs to deal with it.

I didn’t expect that this inconspicuous inflammation actually caused today’s cancer! If I had known today, I would have done a circumcision surgery no matter what. The doctor told Lao Zhou that fortunately, his tumor range was still very small and could be cured by local resection.

Penis cancer is a rare malignant tumor with an incidence rate of about 1/100,000, and is common in men aged 50 to 70.

Penis squamous cell carcinoma accounts for the vast majority of penis cancer, about 95%. What is the matter with penis cancer? We only need to understand the following 3 points to have a general understanding of penile cancer: the causes and prevention, symptoms and treatment methods of penile cancer.

1. What are the causes of penile cancer? How to prevent the cause? The cause of penile cancer is still not very clear. It is currently believed that it is related to factors such as excessive foreskin and large number of precancerous lesions of .

) Foreskin too long: Foreskin too long is the main cause of penile cancer. Because the secretion of the penis cortical glands will produce more cortical secretion dirt, and the relatively closed long foreskin provides conditions for the breeding of bacteria and viruses, which leads to the occurrence of cell carcinoma.

) Related to precancerous lesions : has many precancerous lesions that can develop into penile cancer, such as penile white spots, dry occlusion balanitis, penile skin horns, genital warts , etc.

) Possible risk factors include smoking, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human papillomavirus (HPV), unclean sexual history, etc.

So how should we prevent penile cancer in response to these causes?

For those with severe phimosis or difficulty in flipping foreskin, circumcision should be performed as early as possible. This is a more effective measure to prevent penile cancer. People with too long foreskin should also be turned and cleaned frequently to reduce the stimulation of chronic inflammation.

Finally, people should be vigilant and conduct self-inspection frequently. Once they find suspicious phenomena, they should go to the hospital for treatment in time. To be vigilant in the early stage, we need to first understand what suspicious phenomena are. Let’s take a look at the early symptoms of penile cancer together.

2. Be careful when you have these symptoms. Penis cancer may be targeting you.

Penis cancer often occurs in the early stages of penis head, coronary groove and mucosa of the inner foreskin plate.

For patients with phimosis or foreskin too long and too tight to turn up, because the glans cannot be exposed, early penile cancer tumors are located in the foreskin and cannot be observed with the naked eye. The real lesions are discovered later, which is easy to cause misdiagnosis.

patients often find it difficult to detect in the early stages, but they just feel itchy, burning pain and other discomforts. At this time, you need to touch carefully through the foreskin. Small nodules and lumps in the foreskin can be touched, or they can manifest as ulcers, and local tenderness. may also see purulent or bloody secretions at the mouth of the foreskin.

Therefore, for patients with phimosis, too long foreskin, and able to touch suspicious lumps through the foreskin, they should actively undergo circumcision and perform biopsy on the lumps to clarify the diagnosis.

For patients whose foreskin can be tilted out and can expose the penis head, they often show papules , erythema or ulcers that have not healed for a long time, and there are foul smelly exudates on the surface.

Penis cancer further develops, the symptoms will be aggravated.

When cancer involves the scrotum, a larger lump may appear, and the pain is very severe.

When cancer involves the urethra , the patient may feel that urination is very difficult, and bloodshots may even be seen in the urine; when penis cancer has progressed to the advanced stage, cancer cells will consume a lot of energy of the patient, and symptoms of systemic failure may occur, such as weight loss, weakness, loss of appetite, anemia and cachexia, etc.; When penis cancer has inguinal lymph node metastasis , the swollen lymph node may be touched in the inguinal lymph node. As the condition worsens, the inguinal lymph nodes increase, which can merge with each other and even form cauliflower-like lumps.

It should be noted that the symptoms of STD and penile cancer are very similar, and the two should be distinguished.

STIs refer to a group of diseases that are transmitted through sexual behavior or close sexual contact. For example, the most common STD in my country, gonorrhea , patients often show redness, swelling of the urethral mouth, pain in urination, and even a large amount of yellow and white viscous pus flows out of the urethral mouth; there is also syphilis , which invades the reproductive organs and skin early, causing small local papules, and ulcers soon form. In addition, genital warts also need to be distinguished from penile cancer. Genital warts often occur in men on the edge of the coronal groove of the penis. They start with soft, light red papules, and then gradually increase and enlarge, with the surface becoming uneven, papillary, mushroom-shaped or cauliflower-shaped.

Penis cancer has similar clinical manifestations to gonorrhea, syphilis, and genital warts, but the causes of the two are very different. The factors of penile cancer are often related to excessive foreskin and penile diseases, while venereal diseases are related to high-risk sexual behaviors. Penile cancer does not equal venereal disease, and the two should not be confused.

In fact, their diagnosis is not difficult. only needs to cut part of the lesion tissue with a knife under local anesthesia, and perform pathological section examination to confirm the diagnosis. However, patients often delay medical treatment due to neglect and embarrassment. If relevant symptoms appear, you should not take it lightly, and be wary of sexually transmitted diseases and penile cancer.

So if you have already suffered from penile cancer, how should you treat it? Is penis cancer hopeful cured?

3. Can penile cancer be cured?

Whether penile cancer can be cured should be comprehensively judged based on the tumor's histological type, degree of pathological differentiation, clinical stage and patient systemic condition. The treatment methods for penile cancer include surgical treatment, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, laser, bioimmune and comprehensive treatment. At present, surgical removal of penile cancer and its metastatic inguinal lymph nodes is still the main and thorough treatment method.

(1) Surgery treatment of : Patients with smaller lesions can undergo partial penile resection. If the tumor range has progressed to a larger range, a total penis removal is required, and then the perineal stoma between the anus and the scrotum is used as the urethra.If the tumor has inguinal lymph node metastasis, lymph node dissection is also required. Complete penis incision has a significant impact on the patient's quality of sexual life.

(2) Radiation therapy: Simple radiation therapy can be used as an alternative to surgery. For tumors with primary tumors >5cm and infiltrating the root of the penis, palliative radiotherapy can be performed. Radiotherapy can also be used as a postoperative adjuvant treatment regimen. Radiotherapy may cause side effects such as urethral orifice stenosis and penile necrosis.

(3) Chemotherapy: For those patients with advanced tumors, the lymph nodes are metastasized in multiple places and cannot be removed surgically. BMP regimens containing cisplatin ( cisplatin + methotrexate + bleomycin ) or TPF regimen ( cisplatin + fluorouracil + paclitaxel ) are often used. Chemotherapy is less likely to cure cancer.

(4) Targeted therapy: Distant metastatic penile cancer can be treated with targeted drugs targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Targeted drugs have been used as second-line treatment, and single-agent treatment can be considered in refractory cases.

(5) Multimodal treatment: multimodal treatment can improve the prognosis of patients with penile cancer, prolong the survival of patients with local advanced penile cancer, and gradually become the first choice treatment method for patients with advanced penile cancer. For example, some patients can undergo radical lymph node resection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy; for patients with local recurrence after inguinal lymph node resection, radical lymph node dissection combined with neoadjuvant therapy or adjuvant chemotherapy can be performed.

Overall, with the improvement of diagnosis level and the improvement of surgery, the survival rate of patients with advanced penile cancer is still significantly improving. If you have early suspicious symptoms of penile cancer, don’t avoid medical treatment and seek medical treatment in time. If it is penile cancer, it should be treated immediately. As long as is treated in time, the treatment effect of penile cancer is still good.

People with too long foreskin like Lao Zhou should undergo circumcision as early as possible; they should not be taken lightly for penis inflammation, lumps, ulcers and other symptoms. Once suspicious phenomena are found, you should go to the hospital for treatment in time. If penile cancer is diagnosed, it should be treated actively, and there is still hope of curing it.

References:

[1] Yang Xiaojun. Popular science on the treatment of penis cancer [J]. Medical World, 2020(2):0056-0056.

[2] Ma Hong, Hou Weisheng Tu, Liu Fengzhai. Be careful of penis ulcers [J]. Health Abstract, 2008(9):1.

[3] Feng Zidan, Lu Peixuan, Hu Xiheng. Research status and progress of advanced penis cancer treatment [J]. China Medical Engineering, 2022(030-007).

#Health True Knowledge Notes#