Background and Objectives: Penile cancer is a rare neoplasm in developed countries with an incidence of 0.8/100,000 per male inhabitant. Despite the development of personalized medicine and multimodal treatment, the outcome of penile cancer treatment is insufficient. Our study aimed to assess the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines' mRNA such as interleukin 1-A (encoded by IL1A gene, alias IL-1A), interleukin 1-B (IL1B, IL-1B), interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL1RN, IL-1RN), interleukin 6 (IL6, IL-6), transforming growth factor β1 (TGFB1, TGFβ-1), and Interferon-gamma (INFG, INF-γ) in penile cancer tissue and associate them with tumor progression and patient survival. Material and Methods: Skin biopsies from patients suffering from penile cancer (n = 6) and unchanged foreskin from 13 healthy adult males undergoing circumcision due to a short frenulum were obtained. Pro-inflammatory cytokine mRNA levels were quantified through qPCR. Results: We observed higher expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine genes (IL-1A, IL-1B, IL-6, INF-γ, TGF-β) in penile cancer tissue. The average follow-up period was 48 months (range: 38-54 months), during which only one penile tumor progression was observed However, this was without association with the nature of tumor (patient refused radical treatment). Conclusions: This is the first study to show increased expression of cytokines such as IL-1A, IL-1B, IL-6, INF-γ, and TGF-β in penile cancer with positive correlation between TNM staging and INF-γ levels in tumor samples (rs = 0.672, p = 0.045), which may be associated with the immunosuppressive role of the tumor environment.
Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania). 2023 Sep 08*** epublish ***
Mateusz Czajkowski, Piotr M Wierzbicki, Anna Kotulak-Chrząszcz, Bartosz Małkiewicz, Roman Sosnowski, Zbigniew Kmieć, Marcin Matuszewski
Department of Urology, Medical University of Gdańsk, 80-214 Gdańsk, Poland., Department of Histology, Medical University of Gdańsk, 80-214 Gdańsk, Poland., Department of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Urology, University Center of Excellence in Urology, Wrocław Medical University, 50-367 Wrocław, Poland., Department of Uro-Oncology, M. Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, 00-001 Warsaw, Poland.