Human papilloma virus: Prevalence, distribution and predictive value to lymphatic metastasis in penile carcinoma

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence, distribution and association of HPV with histological pattern of worse prognosis of penile cancer, in order to evaluate its predictive value of inguinal metastasis, as well as evaluation of other previous reported prognostic factors. Material and Methods: Tumor samples of 82 patients with penile carcinoma were tested in order to establish the prevalence and distribution of genotypic HPV using PCR. HPV status was correlated to histopathological factors and the presence of inguinal mestastasis. The influence of several histological characteristics was also correlated to inguinal disease-free survival. Results: Follow-up varied from 1 to 71 months (median 22 months). HPV DNA was identified in 60.9% of sample, with higher prevalence of types 11 and 6 (64% and 32%, respectively). There was no significant correlation of the histological characteristics of worse prognosis of penile cancer with HPV status. Inguinal disease-free survival in 5 years did also not show HPV status influence (p = 0.45). The only independent pathologic factors of inguinal metastasis were: stage T > T1b-T4 (p = 0.02), lymphovascular invasion (p = 0.04) and infiltrative invasion (p = 0.03). Conclusions: HPV status and distribution had shown no correlation with worse prognosis of histological aspects, or predictive value for lymphatic metastasis in penile carcinoma.