Case report: secondary penile carcinoma

Thrombosis of the dorsal vein of the penis as first clinical presentation of pancreatic cancer metastatic to the penis

Introduction:

Though metastatic disease is a common presentation of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, localization to the penis is an extremely rare event despite its abundant vascularization. Primary cancers responsible for penile metastases usually occur in prostate and rectum and are often associated with disseminated malignancy and poor prognosis.

Case description:

A 66-year-old man was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the tail of the pancreas after the onset of thrombosis of the dorsal vein of the penis; pubis ultrasound and total body computed tomography scan were negative for metastases at other sites. The patient was submitted to distal pancreatectomy with splenectomy for a pT3 N1 G4 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Three weeks after discharge, the patient returned to the outpatient clinic complaining of a painful permanent turgidity of the penis shaft. Ultrasound revealed a complete replacement of the cavernosal bodies by multiple nodular masses and a penile biopsy confirmed metastases from the primary pancreatic cancer. The patient started chemotherapy with NAB-paclitaxel and gemcitabine, with excellent control of symptoms. However, the disease progressed to bone and liver and the patient died 9 months after surgery.

Conclusions:

Penile localization is an extremely rare event and a standard of care has not been elaborated. Treatments are palliative and mainly aimed at pain relief and can comprise chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. Identification of venous thrombosis as an early sign of involvement could potentially offer patients an earlier diagnosis and a better treatment option.

[Acute urinary retention and hematuria secondary to metastatic renal clear-cell carcinoma to the penis]

Renal cell carcinoma have a great capacity of dissemination and have a great variety of clinical presentation. We exposed a clinical note of a patient diagnosed of renal cell carcinoma who developed hematuria and acute urinary retention due to a penis metastasis. Next we review the literature about this topic.

Priapism secondary to penile metastasis: a report of two cases and a review of the literature

Malignancy metastasis to the penis is an uncommon clinicopathological entity. We present two cases of malignant priapism following penile metastasis, in which the diagnosis was established by core needle biopsy of the corpus cavernosum. Primary tumors were urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder in one case (the patient having concomitant high-grade prostatic adenocarcinoma) and prostatic adenocarcinoma in the other. The clinicopathological features of 51 previously reported cases of penile metastasis in the recent literature are reviewed.

Cancer metastatic to the penis: treatment with hyperthermia and radiation therapy and review of the literature

Metastatic cancer to the penis is rare, its optimum treatment remains poorly defined and the outcome of patients with such metastases is poor. Hyperthermia in conjunction with radiation therapy has been shown to be an effective modality in the treatment of locally advanced or recurrent cancer and hyperthermia alone is under evaluation in treating benign disorders, such as hypertrophy of the prostate. Recently, 4 patients with symptomatic metastatic lesions to the penis (3 had primary prostatic cancer and 1 had rectal cancer) were treated with radiation therapy and hyperthermia. Treatment was well tolerated except for pain during hyperthermia, which limited the temperatures that could be obtained. All of the patients improved symptomatically, 1 achieved a complete response and 2 had partial responses. No significant complications were noted. Symptomatic control was maintained in all patients for the duration of their survival. This limited series suggests the possible role of local hyperthermia as an adjunct to radiation therapy in the treatment of metastases to the penis.

Penile metastasis secondary to supraglottic squamous cell carcinoma: review of the literature

We report an unusual supraglottic carcinoma metastasis to the penis. Review of the literature revealed more than 300 cases of metastatic lesions to the penis, excluding primary neoplasms from skin, urethra and blood. Of these metastatic neoplasms 16 originated above the diaphragm, only 4 of which were from the head and neck region. The most common neoplastic metastases to the penis in order of frequency were from the bladder, prostate, rectum and rectosigmoid areas, and kidney in 32, 30, 13 and 8% of the cases, respectively. The incidence of other primary tumor sites that metastasize to the penis is extremely rare.