What you need to know: updates in penile cancer staging.

purposeWe sought to discuss the updates in the 8th edition (8E) of The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging for penile cancer and to provide relevant evidence associated with the major changes that occurred.

methodsA comprehensive search of PubMed

resultsModifications were observed in the tumor and nodal staging. In the 8E AJCC, Ta disease indicates noninvasive localized squamous cell carcinoma, which allows for inclusion of other historical variants. T1 is subcategorized into T1a and T1b according to existence of lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion and high-grade tumor. This subcategorization demonstrates different risks for lymph node (LN) metastases and will affect decision strategy when opting for inguinal lymphadenectomy. Urethral invasion is no longer a differentiator between T2 and T3 disease, as T2 includes invasion of the corpus spongiosum and T3 involves invasion of the corpus cavernosum. For nodal staging, pN1 has been increased from a single LN metastases to two unilateral inguinal LN metastases, while pN2 has been modified to three or more inguinal LN metastases. This change was evidenced by demonstrating no significant difference in disease specific mortality between the previous edition's pN1 and pN2.

conclusionsThe 8E penile cancer staging provides several modifications that have relevant clinical implications in the management of penile cancer. Nevertheless, it requires refinements that allow for better staging of penile tumors.