Penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) is a rare malignancy, and first-line therapy typically involves cisplatin-based chemotherapy. However, these regimens are often unsuitable for patients with poor performance status or advanced age due to their toxicity.
This retrospective, multicenter study evaluated patients with metastatic PSCC who received immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy between 2017 and 2024. A total of 10 patients met the inclusion criteria. The median age was 75 years, and 50% had an ECOG performance status of 2 or higher. The objective response rate (ORR) was 30%, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 40%. The duration of response and disease control was over 12 months and 8 months respectively in all patients with response or disease control. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.82 months, and the median overall survival (OS) was 4.32 months. PD-L1 and HPV-positive patients had a 67% response rate (n = 2/3). No patients experienced severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs). This multicenter retrospective analysis suggests that ICI monotherapy may be a promising treatment option for patients with advanced PSCC who are either ineligible for first-line platinum-based chemotherapy or who have progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy, including those with poor performance status. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and identify baseline patient characteristics that may optimize selection criteria.
Experimental hematology & oncology. 2025 Mar 12*** epublish ***
Timothy Schieber, Kelly Brunk, Anna Clennon, Benjamin L Woolbright, Leonidas E Bantis, Dennis Grauer, Tiewei Cheng, Saqib Abbasi, Elizabeth Wulff-Burchfield, Rahul Parikh, Haoran Li
The University of Kansas Cancer Center, 2650 Shawnee Mission Pkwy, Westwood, KS, 66205, United States of America. ., National Community Oncology Dispensing Association, 9 Albany St #2e, Cazenovia, NY, 13035, United States of America., Aurora St Luke's Medical Center, 2900 W Oklahoma Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53215, United States of America., Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd Mailstop 1026, Kansas City, KS, 66103, United States of America., The University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, 2010 Becker Dr, Lawrence, KS, 66047, United States of America., The University of Kansas Cancer Center, 2650 Shawnee Mission Pkwy, Westwood, KS, 66205, United States of America., The University of Kansas Cancer Center, 2650 Shawnee Mission Pkwy, Westwood, KS, 66205, United States of America. .
PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40075416