A global approach to improving penile cancer care

Abstract

Rare tumours such as penile carcinoma have been largely neglected by the urology scientific community in favour of more common — and, therefore, more easily fundable — diseases. Nevertheless, penile cancer represents a rising burden for health-care systems around the world, because a lack of widespread expertise, ineffective centralization of care and absence of research funds have hampered our ability to improve the global care of these patients. Moreover, a dichotomy has arisen in the field of penile cancer, further impeding care: the countries that are mainly supporting research on this topic through the development of epidemiological studies and design of clinical trials are not the countries that have the highest prevalence of the disease. This situation means that randomized controlled trials in developed countries often do not meet the minimum accrual and are intended to close before reaching their end points, whereas trials are almost completely absent in those areas with the highest disease prevalence and probability of successful recruitment, such as Africa, South America and South Asia. The scientific and organizational inaction that arises owing to this mismatch translates into a burdensome cost for our patients. A global effort to gather experts and pull together scientific data from around the world may be the best way to boost clinical research, to change clinical practice and, ultimately, to improve care for patients and their families.

pH-Responsive Polymer Nanomaterials for Tumor Therapy

“…For example, recently, there were 18 million new cancer cases and 9.5 million cancer deaths worldwide in 2018 ( 1 ). Many scientists worldwide are committed to researching the diagnosis and treatment of cancerous tumors ( 5 – 10 ). Although this research has achieved some results, to some extent, the complex tumor microenvironment remains a barrier to novel tumor therapy programs.…”

Current State of Cell Therapies for Genitourinary Malignancies

“…Those with metastatic disease have highly limited treatment options and poor overall survival estimates 72 . Given the low incidence of penile cancer in developed countries and limited preclinical and clinical samples to better study the disease biology, research into the development of new therapies for this disease has been sparse 73 . Therefore, there is an unmet clinical gap in penile cancer disease management that requires the development of alternative therapies that produce durable responses and improved clinical outcomes for penile cancer patients.…”

“…Many of the trials accepting penile cancer patients are those with HPV + tumors, demonstrating a dearth of treatment options for those with HPV − cancers. Recommendations have been made to enhance collaborations with areas of the world that have higher incidence of penile cancer, thus maximizing patient accrual into clinical trials and allowing for more T-cell therapies to be explored 73 …”

“…Recommendations have been made to enhance collaborations with areas of the world that have higher incidence of penile cancer, thus maximizing patient accrual into clinical trials and allowing for more T-cell therapies to be explored. 73…”

The Relationship of Circumcision With Clinical Tumor Staging of Penile Cancer

“…Debate continues about the potential role of circumcision in subsequent development of PSCC [8,9]. To our knowledge, no prior study has discussed the association of prior circumcision with tumor stage at presentation.…”