Warty carcinoma of the penis: A clinicopathological study from South India

AIMS: There are few studies on the pathology of warty carcinoma (WC) of the penis and these have been from South America. Penile cancers are not uncommon in India. We reviewed the frequency of subtypes of penile squamous carcinoma (SC) and the pathological features and outcome of WC when compared to squamous carcinoma-not otherwise specified (SC-NOS). We also compared the clinicopathological features of WC in our series with those published earlier. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied 103 cases of penile cancers over 6 years. Cases were classified into different subtypes according to established histologic criteria. Clinicopathologic features were studied in detail and compared among the different subtypes, especially between WC and SC-NOS. The patients were followed-up and disease free survival in months was noted. RESULTS: SC-NOS constituted 75.7% of all penile cancer cases in our series. The frequency of other subtypes was WC: 9.7%, verrucous: 3.9%, basaloid type and papillary type: 0.97% each, and mixed types 8.7%. The average tumor size and depth of invasion did not differ significantly between the two subtypes. Frequency of lymphovascular emboli and percentage of lymph node metastasis in WC (30 and 10%) were lesser than in SC-NOS (49.37 and 26.58%), respectively. There were no recurrences after partial penectomy in the WC subtype. In the SC-NOS type, three cases had recurrence after partial/total penectomy. CONCLUSION: Warty carcinoma constitutes nearly 10% of all penile squamous cell cancers. These patients seem to have a less aggressive behavior than SC-NOS.