Bristol researchers report their clinicopathological and molecular assessment of 12 penile melanoma cases in the Journal of Clinical Pathology. The researchers examined the paraffin-embedded, formalin-fixed tumor tissue for KIT and BRAF mutations, which are common in other melanomas, but found no such mutations. As for the clinicopathological features, the researchers say that two-year and five-year survival was, respectively, 61 percent and 20 percent, which is a similar prognosis as other melanomas. "Penile melanomas are extremely rare and have a similar prognosis to melanomas elsewhere, but they often present late, leading to a poor outcome. The mutations seen in melanomas from other sites appear to be rarely present in these tumors," the Bristol team concludes.

Also in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, German researchers look at p53, p21, and cyclin D1 expression in 110 penile cancer cases. From this, the researchers found that p53 expression in the primary tumor is associated with a poor outcome, while p21 expression had a minor impact on survival and cyclin D1 had no association. "The possible prognostic implications of p21 seem to be complex and warrant further investigation," the team says.

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