Background: Low-dose-rate brachytherapy is an effective organ-sparing treatment for patients with early-stage penile cancer. However, only limited data are available on the role of high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) in this clinical setting.
Methods: Between 2002 and 2020, 31 patients with early penile cancer were treated at our center with interstitial HDR BT at a dose of 18 × 3 Gy twice daily. A breast brachytherapy template was used for the fixation of stainless hollow needles.
Results: The median follow-up was 117.5 months (range, 5-210). Eight patients (25.8%) developed a recurrence; of these, seven were salvaged by partial amputation. Six patients died of internal comorbidities or a second cancer. The probability of local control at 5 and 10 years was 80.7% (95% CI: 63.7-97.7%) and 68.3% (95% CI: 44.0-92.6%), respectively. Cause-specific survival was 100%. Only one case of radiation-induced necrosis was observed. The probability of penile sparing at 5 and 10 years was 80.6% (95% CI: 63.45-97.7%) and 62.1% (95% CI: 34.8-89.4%), respectively.
Conclusions: These results show that HDR-BT for penile cancer can achieve results comparable to LDR-BT with organ sparing. Despite the relatively large patient cohort-the second largest reported to date in this clinical setting-prospective data from larger samples are needed to confirm the role of HDR-BT in penile cancer.
Keywords: HDR brachytherapy; penile carcinoma.