What is penile cancer?

What is penile cancer?

To understand cancer of the penis, it helps to know the structure and function of normal the penis.

About the Penis

The penis is the external male sexual organ (Penile Cancer) , and part of the urinary system. It contains several types of tissues, including skin, nerves, smooth muscle, and blood ships.

The main part of the penis is known as the tree, and the head of the penis is called the acorn. At birth, the glans is covered by a piece of skin called the foreskin, or prepuce. The foreskin is often removed from the infant boys in an operation called circumcision.

Inside the penis are three chambers containing a soft, spongy network of blood vessels. Two of these rooms into a cylinder, known as the corpora cavernosa, located on either side of the top of the penis. The third is below them and is known as the corpus spongy. This room is hollow at its end to form the glans. The corpus spongiosum surrounds the urethra, a thin tube that begins at the bladder through the penis. The urine and semen travel through the urethra and leave the body through an opening in the glans penis called the meatus.


When a man becomes an erection, nerves signal the body to store blood in the vessels within the corpus cavernosum. As blood fills the chambers, the spongy tissue grows, causing the penis to lengthen and stiffen. After ejaculation, the blood flows back into the body and the penis becomes soft again.


Semen is composed of liquid produced by the prostate and seminal vesicles small bags near the bladder and prostate) and the sperm are made in the testicles. It is stored in the seminal vesicles. During ejaculation, semen passes into the urethra and meatus at the tip of the penis.



The benign conditions of the penis Sometimes growths may develop on the penis that are abnormal but not cancer (they are benign) (Penile Cancer) . These lesions may resemble warts or patches of irritated skin. As penis cancer, they are usually on the glans or foreskin, but they can also occur along the shaft of the penis.


Warts

These are wart-like growths that look like tiny cauliflowers. Some are so small that they can not be seen when the skin is viewed under a magnifying glass. Others may be as large as an inch or more in diameter. Warts are caused by infection with human

papillomavirus (HPV).

Bowenoid papulosis

In this condition, dysplastic (abnormal) cells are seen only in the surface layer of the skin of the penis. This condition tends to occur in young men and is seen as small, reddish, button-like patches on the shaft of the penis. Bowenoid papulosis may be confused at an early stage of cancer  (Penile Cancer) called carcinoma in situ (CIS), but most doctors agree that it is not cancer or pre-cancerous condition.


Cancers of the penis

Each tissue of the penis contains several types of cells. Different types of penises cancer (cancer of the penis) can develop in each cell type. The differences are important because they determine the severity and type of cancer treatment necessary.

Almost all cancers of the penis begins in the cells of the skin of the penis.

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