{"entity":{"id":"urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Squamous cell carcinoma of the urethra","aka":["Urethral squamous cell carcinoma","Squamous cell carcinoma (distal urethra; HPV-associated in some)","Distal urethral carcinoma"],"tldr":"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.\n\nHow 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.\n\nHow 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.\n\nTreatment 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.","asOf":"2026-09-24","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urethral_cancer","links":[{"label":"NCI PDQ: urethral cancer treatment","url":"https://www.cancer.gov/types/urethral/patient/urethral-treatment-pdq"},{"label":"EAU Guidelines: primary urethral carcinoma","url":"https://uroweb.org/guidelines/primary-urethral-carcinoma"},{"label":"Gakis 2013, European Urology: EAU guidelines on primary urethral carcinoma","url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2013.03.044"},{"label":"Gakis 2016, World J Urol: international collaboration on primary urethral carcinoma, 154 patients","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-015-1583-7"},{"label":"Derksen 2013, World J Urol: primary urethral carcinoma in females, Netherlands registry","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-012-0882-5"}],"tags":["subtype-page","wave4","rare"],"related":["urethral","urethral-urothelial-carcinoma","urethral-adenocarcinoma","anal","vulvar","penile"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["fluorouracil","mitomycin","cisplatin"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["hpv-p16","chemoradiation"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"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"],"standardOfCare":[{"setting":"All stages","approach":"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.","refs":["urethral","fluorouracil","mitomycin","cisplatin","chemoradiation"]}],"stateOfArt":[],"history":[],"pipeline":[],"openProblems":[],"parent":"urethral"},"route":"/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"urethral-adenocarcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Adenocarcinoma of the urethra (including clear cell adenocarcinoma)","route":"/cancers/urethral-adenocarcinoma/"},{"id":"anal","kind":"cancer","name":"Anal cancer (squamous cell carcinoma)","route":"/cancers/anal/"},{"id":"urethral-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma of the urethra","route":"/cancers/urethral-melanoma/"},{"id":"penile","kind":"cancer","name":"Penile cancer","route":"/cancers/penile/"},{"id":"urethral","kind":"cancer","name":"Urethral cancer","route":"/cancers/urethral/"},{"id":"urethral-urothelial-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Urothelial carcinoma of the urethra","route":"/cancers/urethral-urothelial-carcinoma/"},{"id":"vulvar","kind":"cancer","name":"Vulvar cancer","route":"/cancers/vulvar/"}],"drug":[{"id":"cisplatin","kind":"drug","name":"Cisplatin","route":"/drugs/cisplatin/"},{"id":"fluorouracil","kind":"drug","name":"Fluorouracil (5-FU)","route":"/drugs/fluorouracil/"},{"id":"mitomycin","kind":"drug","name":"Mitomycin C","route":"/drugs/mitomycin/"}],"term":[{"id":"chemoradiation","kind":"term","name":"Chemoradiation (chemoradiotherapy, CRT)","route":"/terms/chemoradiation/"},{"id":"hpv-p16","kind":"term","name":"HPV-positive (p16) head and neck cancer","route":"/terms/hpv-p16/"}]}}