Penile Cancer Prevention: How to Lower Your Risk

Penile cancer is rare, and a good share of cases can be prevented. This guide walks through what the evidence actually supports for penile cancer prevention, and it is honest about where the evidence runs thin. You will find plain answers about HPV vaccination, hygiene, tobacco, food, medicines, and supplements. Nothing here replaces a conversation with your own doctor, so use this as a starting point for that talk.

Is Penile Cancer Preventable?

Many cases of penile cancer can be prevented, but not all of them. The American Cancer Society points out that penile cancer rates differ a great deal from country to country, and that pattern suggests a large share of cases are tied to things that can be changed. At the same time, some men who develop this cancer have no known avoidable risk factors for penile cancer, which means there is no way to prevent the disease completely.

It helps to think about prevention as lowering the odds rather than removing them. Nothing on this page is a promise. Even so, the steps below are worth taking, because most of them are simple, low cost, and good for the rest of your health too.

The strongest lever is human papillomavirus, or HPV (a very common virus passed through skin-to-skin sexual contact). Certain high-risk types of HPV are an important risk factor for penile cancer. HPV infection is common, and in most people the body clears it on its own. When the infection sticks around for years, though, it can change cells in a way that leads to cancer. The HPV vaccine works by preventing those infections in the first place, which makes it the closest thing we have to true penile cancer prevention.

Long-lasting irritation and inflammation of the skin matter too. In men who are not circumcised, the foreskin can become tight and hard to pull back. That condition is called phimosis. It makes the area hard to clean, which leads to ongoing irritation, and adults with longstanding phimosis have a higher risk of penile cancer. Skin conditions such as lichen sclerosus (a condition that causes white, thickened, scarred patches of genital skin) also deserve treatment rather than waiting. Tobacco is another clear factor, since men who smoke or use other forms of tobacco are more likely to develop penile cancer.

Here is the part that often goes unsaid. Some men do everything right and still get penile cancer. Age alone raises risk, and in the United States the average age at diagnosis is around 60. Getting this cancer is not a sign that you were careless or unclean. If you have already been diagnosed, prevention is no longer the question, and you may find our guides on penile cancer treatment and penile cancer support more useful.

Best Foods for Penile Cancer Prevention

No food, drink, or eating pattern has been proven to prevent penile cancer specifically. Penile cancer is too rare for researchers to run the large diet studies that exist for breast, colon, or prostate cancer. The National Cancer Institute notes that with few exceptions, studies of human populations have not shown definitively that any single dietary component causes or protects against cancer.

What we do have is solid evidence about eating patterns and overall cancer risk. The World Cancer Research Fund estimates that up to 40% of cancer cases could be prevented if people followed its recommendations and if governments made healthy living easier. Those recommendations are not aimed at penile cancer, but they lower risk across many cancers, and they will not harm you. Think of the list below as a way of eating rather than a checklist.

• Vegetables and fruit: Fill a good portion of your plate with them at most meals. Variety matters more than any single "superfood," and frozen and canned count.

• Whole grains and beans: Oats, brown rice, whole wheat bread, lentils, and beans are the backbone of the pattern the World Cancer Research Fund recommends.

• Fiber-rich foods: Fiber comes from plants, and it supports a healthy weight and healthy digestion. Most adults fall short of what they need.

• Less red and processed meat: Limiting beef, pork, lamb, bacon, sausage, and deli meats is a specific recommendation, not a suggestion.

• Less alcohol: Alcohol is a known cause of several cancers, and risk rises with the amount you drink. Less is better, and none is best.

• Fewer sugary drinks and fast foods: These push calories up without adding nutrition, which makes weight harder to manage.

• A healthy weight for you: Excess body weight is linked to a number of cancers. Small, steady changes beat crash dieting.

(Source: World Cancer Research Fund)

If you want help building a realistic plan, ask your care team for a referral to a registered dietitian. That is especially worth doing if you have diabetes, kidney disease, or another condition that shapes what you can eat.

Are There Medications That Help Prevent Penile Cancer?

There is no drug approved to prevent penile cancer in healthy men. In some cancers, doctors can offer a medicine to lower risk in people who have never had the disease. That approach is called chemoprevention. For penile cancer, it does not exist, and you should be skeptical of anyone who tells you otherwise.

What does exist are medicines that treat precancer once it is found. Penile intraepithelial neoplasia, usually shortened to PeIN, is a change in the surface cells of the penis that is not yet invasive cancer but can become cancer over time. The European Association of Urology guideline says doctors can offer topical therapy with 5-fluorouracil or imiquimod (creams applied to the skin) to men with PeIN confirmed by biopsy (removing a small sample of tissue to look at under a microscope). Reported response rates vary widely across studies; lesions can come back, and the guideline advises checking the result after a treatment-free interval and doing another biopsy if there is any doubt. This is treatment of an existing problem, not prevention in a man with healthy skin.

Treating skin conditions is another place where medicine plays a role. Lichen sclerosus is usually managed with a strong steroid ointment prescribed by a urologist or dermatologist, and sometimes with circumcision. Treating it eases symptoms and limits scarring, which is reason enough. Whether that treatment lowers the long-term chance of penile cancer has not been settled by clinical trials, so it is fair to say the treatment is worthwhile without claiming it is proven to prevent cancer.

For men living with HIV, taking antiretroviral therapy as prescribed is important. The National Cancer Institute notes that combination antiretroviral therapy lowers the risk of certain cancers and improves overall survival, and that people with weakened immune systems are less able to clear HPV infections. Antiretroviral therapy has not been shown to prevent penile cancer specifically, but keeping your immune system as strong as possible is a sound goal, and staying in HIV care means someone is examining you regularly.

The HPV vaccine deserves its own mention. It is a vaccine rather than a drug, and it is the single most effective prevention tool we have for HPV-related cancers. The National Cancer Institute reports that real-world data now show the vaccine greatly reduces cancer incidence, and it highlights that there are no formal population screening programs for the non-cervical HPV cancers, which makes vaccination especially valuable for them.

Are There Supplements That Help Prevent Penile Cancer?

No supplement has been shown to prevent penile cancer. Not vitamin D, not zinc, not selenium, not green tea extract, not mushroom blends, not anything sold as an immune booster. There are no trials in penile cancer to support any of it.

The broader evidence on supplements and cancer is also discouraging. One of the World Cancer Research Fund's ten recommendations is simply this: do not use supplements for cancer prevention. Its position is that people should aim to meet nutritional needs through food.

The National Cancer Institute adds detail. Laboratory and animal studies suggested antioxidants might block the cell damage involved in cancer, but research in humans has not convincingly shown that antioxidant supplements reduce the risk of developing or dying from cancer, and some studies have even found a higher risk of certain cancers. For vitamin D, observational studies have hinted at a link between higher blood levels and lower risk of colorectal cancer and lower overall cancer death, but most randomized trials have not found that vitamin D supplements change cancer risk or death rates.

That does not make supplements pointless. If a blood test shows you are low in vitamin D, iron, or vitamin B12, your doctor may prescribe a supplement to correct that deficiency. That is treating a measured problem, which is a completely different thing from taking pills in the hope of avoiding cancer.

Preventing Your Risk of Penile Cancer Through Lifestyle Changes

HPV vaccination is the first thing to ask about. In the United States, the CDC recommends the HPV vaccine routinely at ages 11 to 12, and it can be started as early as age 9. People through age 26 who did not get vaccinated earlier still need it. Two doses are enough if the first dose was given before the 15th birthday, and three doses are needed for those who start at 15 through 26 and for people with weakened immune systems. Vaccination is not routinely recommended after age 26, but adults ages 27 through 45 can talk with a clinician about whether it makes sense for them, keeping in mind that the benefit is smaller because more people in that age range have already been exposed. If you have children or grandchildren in the age range, that conversation may matter more than anything you can do for yourself.

HPV vaccine recommendations and dosing by age (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Stop using tobacco in every form. That includes cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco and snuff. Tobacco use raises penile cancer risk, and quitting lowers your risk of many diseases at once. Quitting is hard, and most people need several tries plus real support, so ask your doctor about counseling, nicotine replacement, and prescription options rather than relying on willpower alone.

Wash gently under the foreskin every day if you are not circumcised. Pull the foreskin back, rinse the whole head of the penis with warm water and mild soap or plain water, rinse the soap off, and return the foreskin to its normal position. That is all it takes. If the foreskin will not pull back, do not force it. Get phimosis evaluated, because a doctor can often prescribe a cream or ointment that loosens the skin, and if that does not work, there are simple procedures that make retraction easier.

Lower your chance of picking up new HPV infections and other sexually transmitted infections. Using condoms correctly every time and having fewer sexual partners both help, though condoms do not cover every area where HPV lives, so they reduce risk rather than remove it. Also know that a partner without visible warts can still carry HPV.

Get any sore, lump, red patch, white patch, wart, or ulcer on the penis checked if it does not clear up within a few weeks. Many men wait months out of embarrassment, and that delay is the real danger, not the exam itself. Most of these changes turn out to be infections or harmless skin conditions. When they are cancer, early treatment often removes the problem with little or no lasting change to the penis. Our guide on penile cancer symptoms describes what to look for.

Two more items round out the list. If you are living with HIV, stay on antiretroviral therapy and stay in care, since a stronger immune system clears HPV better and regular visits mean someone is looking. And if you are treated for psoriasis with PUVA, which combines a medicine called psoralen with ultraviolet A light, know that men who have had this treatment have been found to have a higher rate of penile cancer. Ask your dermatologist about shielding the genital area and about whether another treatment would work for you. Your own care team is the right place to make all of these decisions.

Sources:

• Penile Cancer Causes, Risk Factors, and Prevention, American Cancer Society

• Risk Factors for Penile Cancer, American Cancer Society

• Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine, National Cancer Institute

• HPV Vaccination, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• Cancer Prevention Overview (PDQ) Patient Version, National Cancer Institute

• Risk Factors: Diet, National Cancer Institute

• Our Cancer Prevention Recommendations, World Cancer Research Fund

• HIV Infection and Cancer Risk, National Cancer Institute