Risk factors and molecular characterization of penile cancer

Purpose of review To provide a comprehensive summary of risk factors, molecular machinery as well as potential therapeutic targets with a particular focus on literature published in the last 2 years on prognosis and treatment of penile cancer (PeCa). Recent findings E2F, LAMC2, MAML2, ID1 and IGFBP2 proteins were demonstrated to play a critical role for aggressive tumor behavior and might predict poor survival in PeCa. PD-L1 axis was confirmed as a promising pathway to serve as a therapeutic target. A number of genetic alterations were illuminated. In clinical testing, pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor dacomitinib provided promising results in chemo-naive and EGFR monoantibody nimotuzumab i…