PENILE CANCER-CHEMOTHERAPY - 12 YEARS EXPERIENCE AT INSTITUT GUSTAVE-ROUSSY

Between 1980 and 1992, 14 patients (median age 50 years) with penile c arcinoma were treated with multidrug combination chemotherapy in our i nstitution. Twelve patients had Stage IV (Jackson classification) tumo r, 1 patient each had Stage III and Stage II. All patients received ci splatin-based chemotherapy. Cisplatin was associated with either 5-flu orouracil (4 patients), methotrexate and bleomycin (4 patients), metho trexate (3 patients), Adriamycin (1 patient), bleomycin and vinblastin e (1 patient), or bleomycin and epirubicin (1 patient). Thirteen patie nts were evaluable for response. Objective response was encountered in 2 patients (15%) with 1 complete response and 1 partial response. Res ponse duration was difficult to determine because of additive radiothe rapy or patient was lost to follow-up. There were 2 patients with long -term evidence of no disease among 1 2 patients with Stage IV disease. These 2 patients received complementary irradiation in association wi th the chemotherapy. The response rate was dismal in our series. Metho trexate-based regimens seem to be the most active. The bimodality trea tment with multidrug chemotherapy and radiotherapy for advanced penile cancer could offer a survival advantage in the management of these pa tients.