The Development and Validation of a Nomogram Incorporating Clinical, Pathological, and Therapeutic Features to Predict Overall Survival in Patients With Penile Cancer: A SEER-Based Study

Development and validation of HPV-associated and HPV-independent penile squamous cell carcinoma prognostic nomogram

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to introduce HPV-associated and HPV-independent histologic classifications to analyze prognostic factors and develop a prognostic nomogram for patients with penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC).

METHODS

Data of 1502 PSCC patients between 2010 and 2020 were accessed from the SEER database, and the patients were randomly divided into a training set and a validation set. Independent risk factors for PSCC patients prognosis were analyzed by using univariate and multivariate COX proportional hazards regression, and was used for the construction of the nomogram, and the predictive performance of the model was evaluated by C-index, calibration curve and ROC curve. Kaplan-Meier analysis was applied to explore the impact of HPV-related factors on patient survival, while propensity score matching (PSM) and inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW) techniques were used to balance other confounding factors like individual clinical and pathological factors, and to evaluate the differences in overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS) between subgroups.

RESULT

The results indicated that histologic type, Grade classification, T/M stage, surgical methods and chemotherapy were independent risk factors affecting OS and CSS in PSCC patients. In addition, age and marital status were significantly associated with OS, while lymph node metastasis was an independent prognostic factor for CSS, the validation results of the model showed that the nomogram had a superior predictive performance compared with the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system. In addition, subgroup analyses prior to and after IPTW and PSM adjustments showed that HPV-associated group had better OS and CSS than HPV-independent group.

CONCLUSION

Our study developed and validated a nomogram using a novel histologic classification and achieved satisfactory results, which can better help clinicians to predict the prognosis of penile squamous cell carcinoma patients.

[Initial presentation of the Pentafecta score as a quality instrument for outcome evaluation of primary surgical treatment in patients with penile cancer]

BACKGROUND

Recently, the Tetrafecta score has been published as the first instrument for assessing the quality of primary surgical treatment for penile cancer (PECa). An external scientific discussion about the defining criteria is still pending and forms the study objective.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

An international working group consisting of 12 urologists and an oncologist with clinical and academic-scientific expertise in penile cancer was established. In a modified four-stage Delphi process, a total of 13 criteria for PECa patients in clinical AJCC stages 1-4 (T1-3N0-3, but M0) were defined, incorporating the Tetrafecta criteria. Each expert had to select five of these criteria in a secret ballot to generate an individual Pentafecta score. Subsequently, the experts' ratings were aggregated and a final Pentafecta score was formed.

RESULTS

None of the original Tetrafecta criteria were included in the final Pentafecta score, which consisted of the following criteria: 1) organ preservation, if possible (≤T2), but always with negative surgical margins, 2) bilateral inguinal lymph node dissection (ILND) from ≥pT1G2N0, 3) perioperative chemotherapy if indicated by guidelines, 4) ILND, if indicated, within a maximum of three months after primary tumour resection, and 5) the treating clinic should perform at least 15 primary surgical treatments in PECa patients. Only in seven out of the 13 experts (54%), a strong correlation was found between individual Pentafecta scores and the final Pentafecta score (r_sp >0.60).

CONCLUSION

Based on a moderated voting process among international PECa experts, a Pentafecta score was developed as a quality assurance instrument for primary surgical treatment, which now needs to be validated using patient-relevant and patient-reported endpoints.

The Goal of Achieving High-Quality Surgical First-Line Therapy in Patients with Penile Cancer Is Important; However, Some Collective Efforts Are Still Required in Order to Reach It. Comment on Brassetti et al. Combined Reporting of Surgical Quality and Cancer Control after Surgical Treatment for Penile Tumors with Inguinal Lymph Node Dissection: The Tetrafecta Achievement. Curr. Oncol. 2023, 30, 1882-1892

We read with great interest the manuscript by Brassetti et al. recently published in your journal and hope it will encourage discussion and debate around the optimization of the surgical management of patients with penile cancer (PECa) [...].