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Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Penile cancer says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Penile cancer is a squamous skin-type cancer, about half of it caused by HPV. Caught early it is usually cured with organ-sparing surgery that has replaced amputation, and HPV vaccination and circumcision prevent it; the hard cases are those with lymph-node spread, where cisplatin-based chemotherapy plus surgery and now immunotherapy are being tested in the InPACT trial. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Organ-sparing treatment where feasible (glansectomy, glans resurfacing, wide local excision, laser or brachytherapy); partial or total penectomy reserved for extensive tumours.
Dynamic sentinel node biopsy (or modified inguinal lymphadenectomy where unavailable); observation only for low-risk primaries.
Radical inguinal lymphadenectomy; pelvic lymphadenectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiation for extensive disease; neoadjuvant TIP for bulky or fixed nodes (InPACT is testing the sequence).
Cisplatin-based chemotherapy (TIP); checkpoint inhibitors in trials or where approved for tumour-agnostic indications; palliative radiotherapy.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Trials open now for this cancer in OnCo, largest phase first. Joining a trial is a decision like any other: ask what the comparison arm is, whether a placebo is used, and what happens if you leave. The cancer page searches ClinicalTrials.gov live for more.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.