Purpose:

Surgical excision of the primary tumor in penile cancer (PC) has shown good local control with a risk of locoregional recurrence (LR) of 4-8%. The magnitude of such risk and the characteristics that distinguish patients who develop LR from those who do not is controversial. Our goal was to estimate, clinical and oncological characteristics, and outcome of LR in a cohort of patients with PC.

Materials and methods:

A retrospective, case–control study of ten patients with LR of PC and ten controls. Using a multivariate analysis for clinical and oncological characteristics was evaluated to determine their association with LR.

Results:

Cases and controls were similar in regards to the prevalence of diabetes, age, grade of differentiation, presence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI), and positive margins. In our multiple logistic regression analysis clinical stage (CS), LVI and positive margins were associated with LR. Time to LR had a median of 15 months.

Conclusions:

Our study confirms that patients with advanced CS, LVI and positive margins after surgical excision of the primary tumor could have higher risk of LR. We believe that a close oncological follow-up should be done in patients with adverse oncological characteristics.