# Squamous cell carcinoma of the urethra

Source: https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/  
OnCo record `urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma` (Cancer). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Squamous cell carcinoma of the urethra is the type of urethral cancer that grows in the outer part of the urethra, where the lining is skin-like; in some cases HPV is involved. It is treated like anal or vulval cancer of the same cell type, with chemotherapy and radiotherapy together to avoid removing the urethra.

## Summary

Squamous cell carcinoma arises in the distal (penile or anterior) urethra in men and the distal urethra and meatus in women, where the lining is squamous, and in the EAU classification it is one of the three principal histologies of primary urethral carcinoma with urothelial carcinoma and adenocarcinoma (Gakis 2013). It made up 30 percent of the 154 patients in the international collaboration (Gakis 2016). The parent page notes HPV in a proportion of cases, and p16 staining is listed among its terms.

How it differs from its parent: its site is distal, so it presents with a palpable mass, bleeding or obstruction near the meatus and drains to the inguinal nodes, like penile and vulval cancer, rather than to the pelvic nodes; that changes the surgery and the radiotherapy fields. Its treatment is borrowed from anal and vulval squamous cell carcinoma rather than from bladder cancer.

How common: no incidence figure for the squamous type alone is published; the parent's figure of fewer than one case per million a year covers all types.

Treatment follows the EAU guideline for the parent, with no randomised trial: local excision or partial urethrectomy for small distal tumours, and for larger or node-positive disease chemoradiation with fluorouracil and mitomycin or cisplatin, as in anal cancer, so that the urethra can be kept (EAU Guidelines: primary urethral carcinoma; NCI PDQ). Inguinal node management follows penile and vulval cancer practice as the parent page describes.

## Fields

- Kind: Cancer
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: Urethral squamous cell carcinoma; Squamous cell carcinoma (distal urethra; HPV-associated in some); Distal urethral carcinoma
- Tags: subtype-page; wave4; rare
- Group: genitourinary
- Burden: The second histology: 46 of 154 patients (30 percent) in the international collaboration's series (Gakis 2016). In the Netherlands, urethral cancer in women had a crude incidence of 0.7 per million a year over 1989 to 2008 (Derksen 2013); no registry counts the squamous type alone.
- Subtypes: Squamous cell carcinoma of the distal (penile) urethra in men; Squamous cell carcinoma of the distal urethra and meatus in women; HPV-associated squamous cell carcinoma of the urethra
- Biomarkers: p16 and HPV status; Inguinal and pelvic node status; Depth of invasion and involvement of the corpus spongiosum

## Sections of this record

The page is a hub with ten sections in reading order; large sections have their own page. The same plan as JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/sections.json

- Overview (on the hub): The TL;DR, the family this cancer belongs to, the organ, who gets it and what the state of the art is. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/#overview
- What it is (on the hub): Anatomy, the subtypes and how they differ, how it is staged, and where advanced disease spreads. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/#what-it-is [3 subtypes]
- Finding it (on the hub): How it shows itself, how it is confirmed, what screening exists, and the biomarkers clinicians test for. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/#finding-it [3 biomarkers]
- Treating it (on the hub): The standard of care by setting, the medicines, surgery and radiotherapy named in it, and the regimens behind them. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/#treating-it [1 setting, 1 decision with options]
- Evidence (on the hub): Trials recruiting now, the landmark trials, the key papers and what they mean, the latest literature, and the milestones year by year. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/#evidence
- The science (on the hub): The molecular landscape: the targets and how often each appears, the pathways, the mechanics stages and the preclinical models. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/#science
- Where you are (own page): Cases by country, the UK and NHS pathway and other country lenses, and the expert centres with trials on record. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/where-you-are/
- Living with it (on the hub): The decisions you may face, the aids that walk through them, the warnings on record, the first sixty days and the questions to ask. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/#living-with-it [8 questions, 5 red cards]
- What is coming (own page): Everything in development, the open problems and what is being done about them, the roadmaps, and what changed on this record. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/coming/ [3 medicines]
- Data (own page): Every connected record, the notes, the JSON, Markdown and RDF twins, and where the record came from and when it was checked. https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/data/ [12 connected records]

## Standard of care

- All stages: Treated as the parent page describes: urethra-sparing excision when small and distal; chemoradiation with fluorouracil and mitomycin or cisplatin when larger or node-positive, borrowed from anal cancer. ([Urethral cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral/), [Fluorouracil (5-FU)](https://onco.cc/drugs/fluorouracil/), [Mitomycin C](https://onco.cc/drugs/mitomycin/), [Cisplatin](https://onco.cc/drugs/cisplatin/), [Chemoradiation (chemoradiotherapy, CRT)](https://onco.cc/terms/chemoradiation/))

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urethral_cancer
- NCI PDQ: urethral cancer treatment: https://www.cancer.gov/types/urethral/patient/urethral-treatment-pdq
- EAU Guidelines: primary urethral carcinoma: https://uroweb.org/guidelines/primary-urethral-carcinoma
- Gakis 2013, European Urology: EAU guidelines on primary urethral carcinoma: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2013.03.044
- Gakis 2016, World J Urol: international collaboration on primary urethral carcinoma, 154 patients: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-015-1583-7
- Derksen 2013, World J Urol: primary urethral carcinoma in females, Netherlands registry: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-012-0882-5

## Connected records

- cancers: [Adenocarcinoma of the urethra (including clear cell adenocarcinoma)](https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-adenocarcinoma/), [Anal cancer (squamous cell carcinoma)](https://onco.cc/cancers/anal/), [Melanoma of the urethra](https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-melanoma/), [Penile cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/penile/), [Urethral cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral/), [Urothelial carcinoma of the urethra](https://onco.cc/cancers/urethral-urothelial-carcinoma/), [Vulvar cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/vulvar/)
- drugs: [Cisplatin](https://onco.cc/drugs/cisplatin/), [Fluorouracil (5-FU)](https://onco.cc/drugs/fluorouracil/), [Mitomycin C](https://onco.cc/drugs/mitomycin/)
- terms: [Chemoradiation (chemoradiotherapy, CRT)](https://onco.cc/terms/chemoradiation/), [HPV-positive (p16) head and neck cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/hpv-p16/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma.json