Penile cancer specialist centres NSW

Criteria for a specialist penile cancer centre

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines state people diagnosed with penile cancer should be managed in centralised specialty centres to improve quality of care and outcomes.^{(1, 2)} Each specialty centre should have a specialist penile cancer multidisciplinary team composed of experts in penile cancer.⁽¹⁾

For facilities to be considered specialist centres they should:

1. Access to an onsite urological multidisciplinary cancer care team (MDT).^{(1, 3)}
2. Membership includes a Urologist with a special interest in penile cancer who is willing to perform inguinal lymph node excision.⁽³⁾
3. The multidisciplinary team has capability to coordinate a penile cancer multidisciplinary team teleconference between promoted NSW centres.^{(1, 3)}
4. The facility averaged one penile cancer amputation per year over the four year period reported. ^{(2, 4)}
5. The facility averaged one penile cancer lymph node excision per year over the four year period reported. ^{(2, 3)}
6. The facility has the ability to perform dynamic sentinel node biopsy and access to positron emission tomography (PET) in order to optimise outcomes following penile cancer surgery.^{(4, 5)}

*The criteria are based on international studies and local clinical advisory group endorsement.

Availability of a multidisciplinary cancer care team

People diagnosed with penile cancer may have one or more types of treatments, including laser therapy, surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The involvement of a multidisciplinary cancer care team is required.⁽⁶⁾ This team brings together health care professionals from different specialties to discuss a patient’s cancer diagnosis and staging, and their treatment options. It also enhances communication and care co-ordination between the specialists involved in a patient’s care.

International studies show that patients overseen by a multidisciplinary cancer care team experience better outcomes after cancer treatment.^(7-9)