Neoadjuvant, adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy of penile cancer [Neoadjuvante, adjuvante und palliative Chemotherapie des Peniskarzinoms]

Data on the treatment of advanced penile carcinoma especially for chemotherapy are very limited. Due to the results of recent studies there has been a shift to taxan/cisplatinum based regimens. Initial case reports also showed a response to targeted therapy especially antibodies against epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Nevertheless, a curative treatment by medicinal approaches alone does not appear to be possible for metastatic penile cancer and can be only cured by multimodal approaches, including neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy and salvage lymph node dissection. Palliative chemotherapy of advanced penile cancer has to be individually adapted and weighed against best supportive care for the final decision. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.